Hello, I'm very glad to see a forum with other SVX enthusiasts. At last, people who appriciate the SVX as much as I do.
This will be the first of many questions I will have about my 92 AWD black/black LSL.
I have had mine for about a year and a half or so now, and haven't had any real major problems yet. Just the battery, alternator, power steering pump, and rear wheel bearings. With 113,000 miles on it now I expected to run in to a few things. I fixed all of the aforementioned problems myself with little or no difficulty.
But now I have run into a problem that I am having some trouble diagnosing; When driving at highway speeds especially up an incline, (any hill requiring more than 3000 RPM) my engine starts knocking pretty badly. I'm not sure if it's a miss or a fuel related problem or something vaccuum related. If the car stays around, or a little below, 3000 RPM for an extended period of time, the check engine light comes on. Normally this only happens when climbing a hill. Most of the time, after I reach the crest of the hill and start the decline down the hill the check engine light goes off. But the knocking has me a little worried. It is kind of like a hiccup at a steady, higher RPM. If I let off the gas or give more gas, it temporarily stops. Sometimes the check engine light comes on even if I can make it up a long hill without the car knocking.
But driving around town at low speeds and low RPMs the car runs perfectly. No check engine light, no knocking. Could this be as simple as new plugs. I haven't changed them since I owned the car, and I don't know when the previous owner had them done. I should probably change them reguardless of whether this solves my problem. But this looks to be a VERY difficult, time consuming tune up. Any advice on plugs would be helpful too, I use NGK Iridium in my RX7. Do these work well on SVXs too?
I'm not sure if a simple misfire would produce a knock this bad and if so, if it would trigger a check engine light. And why the light would then turn off after the engine gets a little 1500 - 2000 RPM rest coasting down a hill. Any help on this problem would be very much appriciated.
Thanks SVXers
