Skidude

My car is bone stock, and I get the hesitation and stuttering in the usual 2500- 3000 rpm range. If I floor the pedal, it'll move past that and run fine. A couple of observations:

1. I recently went for a period of time with a driver's side oil control valve that seemed to be working but was throwing a CEL. No stuttering during that period of time, but it has returned after I replaced the OCV.

2. When the car is misbehaving, the engine seems to have very little power, which makes me wonder if the engine controller has the ignition timing at full retard? Or is the OCV in the wrong position for power in that rev range?

3. If I use the steering wheel buttons to initiate a downshift, I see the transmission is usually in a gear that one or two higher than what it seems like it should be for the engine load. For instance, going up a steep hill toward my house, it'll be in 3rd gear, when 2nd is what's really called for not to be lugging (to the point of bogging down) the engine.

 

Those are my 4-cents worth, that it seems like overly retarded timing, and/or a transmission in too high a gear, probably for mileage purposes. Plus OCV misbehavior.

 

I am also bone stock, and have sort of suspected a cam timing thing for a while, but I have no way to really check that. My car is a 5MT though, so I generally know what gear I am in, and my RPM is solidly correlated with my wheel speed in any gear.

 

These symptoms have been consistent with one acception, I work on cars for a living and this situation quite confused me, here we go:

Stopped at a gas station abou a mile away from my shop for some snacks on lunch. Turn of car go in come back try to start car, car starts to turn over and quits... Ok try again, starts to turn over stops... Ok make sure my lights (HID's) are off and any other electrical draws are off. Turn key, car fires up as if nothing even happened just like normal, but something felt different, so what does any responsible rational car owner do? Light it up. The weird part was that the little stutter it has on its way to redline was completely gone, and it pulled harder than I'd ever felt it before. Wired right or am I just missing something obvious. Al startups since have been normal.

 

This sounds like the ECU reset and forgot any of its long term trims. Whenever mine resets (happens after a battery disconnect mostly) it idles funny for a few minutes. Maybe your ECU had been pulling timing due to the 87 the previous owner used, and now it's not?

Yes. Somehow its in another thread. Too many threads on the subject. But, extending the fuel lines works.

 

Can somebody point us to the other thread?

I had that thought as well. Does anybody with a standard flywheel have the problem as bad?

I cleaned my MAF sensor this weekend and my stumble went away completely. We'll see how long it lasts, but it was dirty because the previous owner installed a K&N and I haven't changed back to a paper filter yet.

No, no compromise. I was just curious. I can't really think of any scenario where I wouldn't have said I could live with it, unless hitting the trunk button would cause the alarm or a violent explosion or something.

I could live with that. I guess in the year I have owned the car I have not actually used that button, I don't know why I would start now.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but what happens with the wagon's rear hatch? I saw a link to another thread about adding the rear door, but after that what happens when you press the "trunk" button? I didn't want to ask over there because that thread has been dead for years (and somebody was being a total weinie about this mod)

Well that seems down-right reasonable. I'll keep that in mind in case I get a broken windshield before I get around to fixing the rattle.

$249, I assume you don't have a windshield wiper de-icer?