When im holding the gas just enough to keep at the speed limit my car will chug or lurch. Little harsher than a surge. I have changed the plugs and wires and that didnt fix it. thinking maybe fuel filter and/ or O2 sensor. Any ideas? oh and the mpg is lower that i thought it would be. 5 miles round trip to work 3 days = 1/4 tank

 

eeek.

Start by replacing Engine coolant temp sensor (ECTS) with brass tipped style replacement and replace connector (dealer only part for connector).

It's a two wire device threaded into the head on the driver's side. Find the EGR, then look down. There will be two temp sensors threaded into the head there-- one has two wires, the other a single wire (that one's for the dash temp gauge).

You want the 2 wire device.

Squeeze connector to release it.
Use teflon tape on threads and replace on a cold engine. Put a rag under it and block opening with fingertip to minimize coolant loss while doing the swap.

Service Engine Soon (SES) light on? If so, any codes?

 

no codes. but it does seem that it gets better as the car warms up. Which takes alot longer than i expect it should. My 79 Chevy 1/2 ton with a 350 warms up faster, lol. ill try the sensor. Thanks!

 

ok, so i havent done the sensor yet, but thought i would add some more things and see if the diagnosis remains the same. So i did the fuel filter and changed the thermostat. Now it only does it til warm. then it all but quits doing it. (still does it but very slight) Also it doesn't register warm until i start driving it. It has a 195 degree thermostat in it now, the water that came out of it was nothing short of swamp juice. Soooooo whatcha think?

 

does it till warm since fuel mix is absurdly rich until then. ECTS

 

k. ima do that this weekend.

 

Got the sensor done. test drove it and still doing it. Seems to be right around 2000 rpm. I also found a crack in the radiator found one online for $83 shipped so ill be doing that as soon as it arrives.

 

radiators done. surprisingly its not chugging as bad now. gonna try cleaning the throttle body when the race is over and if that doesnt help ill try the 02 sensor just because i dont know when it was done last. I did RTFM and it said vac leak bad connection at the injectors faulty fuel pump or bad PCM ( i highly doubt its the pcm) havent tested fuel pressure yet. Anything else i should check on? its getting annoying, lol.

 

it was the O2 sensor for those interested.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on your problem. Frankly, I'm suprised that you didn't get a code return from the bad/faulty O2 sensor. Oh well, learn something every day ....