SteveG

Could this be muliple problems? I had completed checking the tbelt, (light had not come on, so I don't think any teeth were jumped, no prior indications) which means I had disconnected passenger coil wire to dist. and reinstalled. No initial problem, but On road for 2 hours, interstate, engage cruise control, engine bucks. turned that off, it wouldn't engage, didn't use it the rest of trip. I'm at 75 mph, (+/-2100 rpm)staying in 5th, i.e., w/o downshifting, trying to accelerate, eventually with pedal to floor, no response, wait 10-15 seconds, VERY slow accel, sometimes it charges ahead. No diff between slow push on pedal and immed push to floor. It accelerated thru the gears w/some hesitation, but no major problem; just not running right -- I reinserted/ adjusted coil wire, helped, but still some intermittant hesitation. After 1000 miles, will start initially, but dies, may take 3 trys to hold idle. Thanks for any troubleshooting.

Having gone through many posts about rough run, I'm hoping some enterprising soul, (Wally hint, hint) will prepare a guide on same. It would be a best seller (here), so many variations of hot/cold, etc. and MYs to deal with, it seems to be major item for us. Or is is just because that is what STEVE has to deal with at the moment?? <img border="0" alt="[crying]" title="" src="graemlins/crying.gif" /> I still love my car, I just wish she would behave better.

WallyP

The fact that fiddling with the coil wire helped might well mean that you have a secondary ignition problem. Coil wires, plug wires, rotors, caps, plug wires, etc., etc.

What hasn't been changed in a long time?

SteveG

Wally, I've had the car 1 year; currently has 86K on it; caps and rotors were replaced at about 79K; I believe it had a tune-up, but spark and coil wires look original. The bare wire end into the distributor has a white cast to it = oxidation, is this normal? I will try some dielectric grease on it. It seems to be temp related as I didn't notice it for first 1-2 hours. Thanks for the info.

Niels Jørgensen

I have a suggestion: Could everyone who has had (and possibly solved) these types of problems post their car-info, short desc. of symptoms, a list of things that didn't work and, if applicable, the solution.

It could be quite usefull given the number of people who experience hesitation in one form or another. I'd be happy to compile the info into a little document, as I'm having these problems myself

My latest attempt is having John Speake test and possibly fix my MAF - I'll keep you posted when I get it back.

I'll start, FWIW:

Symptoms:

My symptoms are periodic, one day it's running bad, another great. When bad, it feels as if I have a rubber-band in place of the speeder cable. When I floor it at low speeds, the engine won't rev properly for a second or two, then suddenly rockets forward. At high speeds, it's just painfully non-responsive. Also, when I depress the clutch and let go of the gas, RPM drops violently to a few hundred before it stabilizes at 800 or so (this is consistent). Finally, when cold-starting (regardless of outside temperature), the car is extremely (as in "not just rich") sluggish for the first couple of minutes.

Things that I've tried without any effect:

Higher octane/different fuel, fuel additive, replacement of partially clogged muffler. Various air filters.

Things that had some effect:

Injector cleaner, ign. wires, plugs, rotors, dist.caps., cam-cover seals (I had oil around the plugs at one point), fiddling with the fuse box.

(Given the variety of solutions that affected the symptoms, I guess I've been the victim of several different problems simultaneously.)

Solution:

TBD

splitpoint

I'm experiencing the same symptoms as Niels in my '84 5-speed. If I unplug the o2 sensor then the car runs perfect. I replaced the o2 sensor and the thing runs like crap again. Meanwhile I'm running wit the o2 sensor disconnected until I can track down the problem.

Al