Surging when accelerating / a minute or so after starting

#1 04-15-2002, 07:50 PM

My start & stall problem seems to have diminished, and I just ease onto the accelerator after starting to make sure it goes. This morning when I was out in search of a front brake job I started the car and shifted into drive or reverse or something, and it seemed to shift a lot sooner than normal. As I accelerated to the red light (in gear 1) the engine seemed to "surge" on and off (It didn't make a noise, but if it did it would go 'RRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrr' and so my acceleration was about like that. If that is not abnormal then okay; but it seems like this car does something funny about every day and irons itself out. Just trying to prevent something bad from happening...

...speaking of which, I'm certain that this car has not had the 60k service. Can anything extra bad happen as a result of that? Some of it I can do myself (coolant flush) but I ain't touching that timing belt.

Szalkerous · #2 04-18-2002, 01:35 PM

You know, I had that issue too, but it only happened during the period of time between a cold start and operating temperature. In the past two days, it has been doing it constantly, but in a different fashion; at almost exactly 1200rpm, it hesitates hard, then surges to 1500 and is good from there.

My theory:

The cold start issue is a fuel pump/regulator/filter problem. Somewhere along the line the fuel PSI is not steady methinks.

As for my new issue...

I think my torque converter/transmission is not a happy camper to the 90 degree blast we've had in MA the past few days. It's an almost brand new tranny. Has roughly 20k on it. Since the new transmission I have babied it as much as can be.... perhaps it's not too late for a tranny cooler??

Anyone want to comment/throw in much needed suby wisdom?

-Sz

Beav · #3 04-18-2002, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Szalkerous
You know, I had that issue too, but it only happened during the period of time between a cold start and operating temperature. In the past two days, it has been doing it constantly, but in a different fashion; at almost exactly 1200rpm, it hesitates hard, then surges to 1500 and is good from there.

My theory:

The cold start issue is a fuel pump/regulator/filter problem. Somewhere along the line the fuel PSI is not steady methinks.

-Sz

Mine started doing the same a day or so ago - since the temperature has gone up. Sometimes it does when it's warm also. So far I've had time to check the TPS and MAF, fuel pressure was my next item to check. The bad part is trying to find time to do it, we're very busy now....

jeradsvx · #4 04-18-2002, 04:47 PM

Hey Szalkerous,
Where in Mass are you located? I was just wondering where you were maybe we could meet up sometime. I go to Umass/Amherst.
Thanks
Jerad

#5 04-19-2002, 12:44 AM

I get that every day when I start off. and its been about 40-50 degrees every morning. it seems to only do it in the morning for me. When I first start it up. And it seems to do it less when I have a full tank of gas. I just figured my injectors were dirty. I just haven't had any money to buy cleaner for them. Maybe I'm wrong.

#6 04-19-2002, 09:23 AM

Mine has done the surging thing since i've owned it. I dont let it bother me. One of these days i'll look into it, but until then... F it.

-Mike

Beav · #7 04-19-2002, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Green1995SVX
Mine has done the surging thing since i've owned it. I dont let it bother me. One of these days i'll look into it, but until then... F it.

-Mike

That was my attitude until it started doing it when hot - and much worse than the morning surges.

#8 04-19-2002, 12:13 PM

My thought was fuel filter. I'm gonna replace that sometime soon. I'll keep y'all posted.

-Mike

MNYPNNY · #9 04-19-2002, 12:53 PM

Mine's always done the surging thing too.
I've had the fuel filter replaced twice and it hasn't seemed to help.
I run injector cleaner through it and it seems to be better for awhile.

--Michelle

Beav · #10 04-19-2002, 04:42 PM

I found a few minutes this afternoon to check the fuel pressure and flow, look for vacuum leaks and generally get wet doing so in the rain. All for naught, all was well. However the car seems to have gotten over whatever it is/was, it's running fine today. Kinda hard to fix something when it isn't broken.

Driveability problems have been a bear this week, everything coming in the shop has been weird. That and a lot of new customers drifting over from the K-Mart, now that Roger pulled the plug. The way things are going with them I wish they'd drift over to somewhere else...

#11 05-14-2002, 12:00 PM

Has anyone figured out why the engine surges? It's worse when I first get moving, but even last week after traveling on the interstate for an hour I noticed that it still does it a little; I had to slow down for construction traffic and in 2nd gear at constant speed you could subtly go RRRRrrrrrRRRRrrrr.....

I'm running some injector cleaner through now; the Check Engine light came on soon after I put some in and then it went off so I guess it's doing something...

#12 06-23-2003, 08:12 AM

Did anyone figure out the problem?

SVX10 · #13 06-23-2003, 09:15 AM

no answers here, but I have the same problem. Mine is obvious when the car is cold, and maybe sometimes there once warmed up. I was reading a 300zx forum a while back and it suggested that surging (on the 300zx) could be due to all the things we mentioned already, OR it could be due to a faulty engine temp sensor. If I'm not mistaken, our engine temp sensor is on the front of the engine under the alternator. The ECU gets a signal that the engine is warm, but it's not, so it runs wrong...something like that. Any comments?
-Mat

#14 06-23-2003, 09:19 AM

hummm...thats an interesting comment.

i thought my thermostat was broken this winter. the engine would not heat up unless i covered the grill.

hummm.....

gl1674 · #15 06-23-2003, 02:51 PM

If I'm not mistaken, our engine temp sensor is on the front of the engine under the alternator. The ECU gets a signal that the engine is warm, but it's not, so it runs wrong...something like that. Any comments?

No the thing under alternator is oil pressure sensor. The temp sensors are on the left (driver) side back of the engine. There are two of them next to each other - one for ECU, the other for the gauge on dashboard.

So in theory we all could have gotten a bad temp sensor for ECU, but a perfectly normal one for the dashboard indicator, but I find this kinda hard to believe.