Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

I first noticed it in 5th gear going 45 or so, almost felt like REALLY light wheel hop but no steering wheel vibration or anything, just stuttering acceleration.

Then I started noticing it going up this really steep/big hill before my house, power would drop off towards the top of the hill sooner than normal.

Clogged cat? Distributor coil? The spark plugs and air filter are less than 1000 miles old. I might be biased in thinking that it's the coil, my old 95 LS went through 3-4 of those in the less than a year that I had it.


1993 Integra RS

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

hows your fuel filter? Possible that your coil could be going bad, and also when is the last time the car had a tune up?

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

Dunno about the fuel filter or the extent of what you define a "tune up" as but it's had oil, spark plugs, transmission flushed, and air filter within the last couple thousand miles.

I was thinking of changing the plug wires, cap, and rotor and going from there.

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

So now I noticed that it's pretty much any time there is excessive load on the engine. Low RPM acceleration in top gear, mid RPM acceleration on an incline... downshifting usually makes it go away but that's a temporary solution.

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

Slipping clutch? Any rpm studder with that "wheel hop"?

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

It's not wheel hop, just kinda feels like that kind of stuttering but an extremely light version of it.

Usually happens 2-3k on a flat surface in 5th gear, 3-4k on an incline in 4th or 5th... haven't felt it in any other gear yet, probably isn't enough load in a lower gear to replicate the issue.

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

bump

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

Check your ignition timing first, because it doesn't cost anything to adjust.

Fuel filter, plugs, wires, cap, rotor could all cause this.

Who did the "transmission flush" ?

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

Shit, I knew I forgot something at the dealership... just went and bought cap, rotor, wires, and coil. Plugs and air filter were changed recently enough (less than 1k miles).

Dealership did the transmission oil change.

It didn't do any stuttering on the drive home. I hate problems that are intermittent, so hard to diagnose.

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

maybe a lil moisture got into somewhere that u couldnt see and it was fouling out that happened to me and i replaced a 250 dolar dizzy for nothing but it looked fresh

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

Any way that it could have been clogged air filter and it took a bit for the ECU to adjust? It seems to have gone away after replacing the air filter but it didn't right away.

(first post says that spark plugs and air filter had <1k miles... I replaced the spark plugs a month ago but didn't do the air filter until the first day this started happening but the problem didn't go away right away)

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

check fuel pump

Re: Stuttering under low rpm acceleration, what's wrong?
 

It went away, just wondering what caused it for future reference now. Refer to the post I made before this one.