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Engine hesitation at initial acceleration

Joined
13 April 2001
Messages
59
Location
Rockville, Maryland
My 1995 NSX has begun hesitating when I first start trying to accelerate. I press the pedal down and I can feel the engine bog down but not in a "flywheel needs to speed up" kind way. The sound and feel are almost like either the fuel or the air is not getting into the cylinders or that the exhaust system is clogged and so the engine is fighting the back pressure. The more suddenly I attempt to accelerate, the greater the hesitation. After about a 1/2 second, the engine gets moving and everything seems okay.

The problem is most noticeable at low RPMs (under 3000 - 3500) in lower gears. At high RPMs, I can barely feel a problem if any at all.

The car has 45k miles and is used as a nice weather vehicle only (and track car) which means that given the winter here in DC, the car did not get out much. I did however start it up about every 2 - 3 weeks when I was not able to take it out.

A couple initial theories might be:

1. A batch of bad gas
2. Some condensation in the gas tank
3. A fuel pump or fuel filter problem
4. A dead animal in the exhaust system (nothing smells so I do not think that this is likely but what the heck)
5. Clogged air intake (I can't imagine how but I guess it could be possible)

The car has never had this problem before nor have I ever experienced this with any other car that I have owned so I am a bit perplexed.

Anybody have any ideas?
 
I forgot to turn my TCS off for a run at an autocross recently. Coming out of the turns the car hesitated just as you described. Try turning it off if you haven't already.
 
Thanks Animate,

That was my initial guess when I first felt the problem but after turning the TCS off made no difference, I realized that had to be something else. Any other possibilities?
 
I had a similar problem with my 91 when I bought it two years ago. When I would take off in 1st sometimes it would bog just for a second then it would be fine it did it only a few times over a month. The car was due for a major tune up so I had the Plugs,Fuel Filter,Airfilter etc all replaced not to mention running a couple bottles of Redline Fuel Injector Cleaner through it and never had a problem since and that was two years ago.




Steven 91 Blk/Ivory
 
My car is in the shop right now with the same problem. To make a long story short it turned out to be a coil problem.
Do a search on coil you will get a the info you need good luck.

Here is the long story.
I went to my dealer to get an oil change some yong kid changed it but the service rep drove it. I drove it for about 300 km and started to hear loud ticking sound and it smelled funny. So I looked in the engine bay and the oil fill cap was gone. There was oil everywere. The oil cap was wedged on the air box. I put a quart and a half of oil in, Needless to say I was not to happy. About 2 weeks later it started to bog down between 2000 and 3500 revs only when it had a load on it. No check engine light came on. The more I drove It the worse it got. The oil ran over the coils and spark plugs now they are trying to stick me with the bill. For bad coils and spark plugs.
 
or wheel speed sensors

some hesitation also when wheel speed sensors get fouled up (did you drive it outside during the winter?), incorrectly triggering TCS under hard acceleration
 
Arnis said:
My 1995 NSX has begun hesitating when I first start trying to accelerate. I press the pedal down and I can feel the engine bog down but not in a "flywheel needs to speed up" kind way. The sound and feel are almost like either the fuel or the air is not getting into the cylinders or that the exhaust system is clogged and so the engine is fighting the back pressure. The more suddenly I attempt to accelerate, the greater the hesitation. After about a 1/2 second, the engine gets moving and everything seems okay.

The problem is most noticeable at low RPMs (under 3000 - 3500) in lower gears. At high RPMs, I can barely feel a problem if any at all.

The car has 45k miles and is used as a nice weather vehicle only (and track car) which means that given the winter here in DC, the car did not get out much. I did however start it up about every 2 - 3 weeks when I was not able to take it out.

A couple initial theories might be:

1. A batch of bad gas
2. Some condensation in the gas tank
3. A fuel pump or fuel filter problem
4. A dead animal in the exhaust system (nothing smells so I do not think that this is likely but what the heck)
5. Clogged air intake (I can't imagine how but I guess it could be possible)

The car has never had this problem before nor have I ever experienced this with any other car that I have owned so I am a bit perplexed.

Anybody have any ideas?

I have a similar problem on both of my cars currently (94 NSX and 95 M3). The behavior is exactly the same on both of them. When the engine is cold, and I am driving gingerly with a light right foot, I can feel the engine bog. It's almost as if I downshifted into a lower gear and there's the expected lurch forward as engine braking comes into play. It's not as bad as a lurch forward, but I can definitely feel that the acceleration was just cut off and my body swings forward a little bit.

I am not sure what the problem is. My M3 has had this problem for the past 5,000-10,000 miles, and before that it was completely fine. There are no engine mods to my M3. My NSX only recently started having this problem in the last 2 months. I have only Comptech headers as the only engine mod on my NSX.

At first I thought the M3's VANOS system was going bad, as they are known to go bad if there are a lot of miles on the car. But when the exact same thing started happening on my NSX, I no longer thought it was the VANOS, but it must be something else.

Still not sure what it is at this point.

-CiaoBoy
 
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