I normally do not drive the car hard. Maybe on entrance ramps but nothing in first gear because of wheel spin etc. Current mods on the car are a torque dampner and Cold air intake from ebay with a k&n filter. This was just added 2 weeks ago. Oil change was done 5 weeks ago if that. I have been concentrating on gas mileage with the high gas prices. car has 47xxx miles on it.

So here is my problem.

When the car first starts up after a period of sitting over night or during work I let the car warm up for a couple of minutes as I adjust everything and turn the ac on etc. when I put the car in reverse to pull out of the parking space and then in first gear to go forward. If I give it a bit of gas once I am rolling the car feels as if it has lost ALL power all of a sudden. The best way to describe it is if, you are in first gear go wot and then hit the clutch before the car boosts for a couple of seconds. Only difference is my foot is off the clutch.... Or if you know you are suppose to be going forward but the car has paused. Those are the best ways to describe this. Everytime this happens it last for a mere couple of seconds. However it use to happen once in a great while now it happens all the time during the specified sitting periods. I drive mostly highway aswell so I do not use first gear unless I am in the city streets or parking lots. I have also noticed this in second gear aswell. I will be well into second gear give it a bit more gas and the car just stops for a bit before moving forward.

I am trying to figure out if the car is pulling timing or if my clutch is going out.

This was my first manual car. I have had the car since mile 1 and learned pertty quick. I am not going to say that I am an awesome or great manual driver but I do know and feel what is going on very well with the car. This does not seem like normal operation.............


Any Ideas? Anyone else have this problem? Is my clutch going out on me? Is it slipping really bad?

any help would be great guys.

 

Wow thats crazy this happens to me too... My car does this too sometimes in the mornings when I leave for work. It will hesitate quite badly for a second and then it's fine until the next time it's parked overnight for a while.

And it's always within 5 seconds of starting to drive after backing down my driveway

I don't think it's the clutch though, not sure what it could be.

 

I had the same problem and i took out my spark plugs and re gapped then and it ran fine

Spark plugs is my guess maybe theres not gapped right

 

Hmm.. could be, I did change my spark plugs a couple of months ago... I got the NGK Iridiums and I left them gapped the way they came (.040)

 

no no no there supposed to be gapped at .30 when you buy them.. where did you get them online? cobalt addiction? i bought mine at auto zone and they came .30.. try gapping them to .30 by pushing the top of the spark plug on something metal.

 

would this happen with factory sparkplugs?

Everything on the car minus the intake and torque dampner is factory. I have not change the spark plugs and was planing on doing so at the 50k mark....

 

I really dont know about that one. is your car stock with no stage kit? because they maybe come like that from the factory.. i wouldnt buy anything like that from the factory.. id go to auto zone or adavance

 

I've had this too, and I'm pretty sure it's just the engine not being warmed up. After a long sitting period, nothing is anywhere near operating temperature, so when you first put a load on it, the engine's like WHOAFUCK trying to keep up. (the same reason that if you go into boost right away your car will punish you)

The only way I've gotten around it was revving a little higher when I first pull out of my parking spot. It's fine after that first time.

 

I let my engine coolant get to about at least 145 degrees before I start moving, I notice a huge difference if I don't let it warm up for at least 2 minutes if it's been sitting overnight.

 

Yah I think you're probably right... Because it seems to do only when I'm late for work and I hurry like today, so I gave it a bit more gas in 2nd as soon as I shifted out of 1st and it hesitated. I'll just be more careful

LOL my driveway is on a slope.. So i let the car warm up by letting it roll down the driveway on it's on. About 5 seconds haha.

 

haha so is mine pretty steep, but it doesn't like it when I try to drive it without warming it up first, like when I'm late to work, it lets me know not to do that again hahaa.

 

Not staged. And I ment the car is still running the spark plugs from the factory so everything should be gapped right, right?

I will see if letting the car warm up works. Its just weird how this use to happen once in a blue moon and now its all the time.... I am going to take it into a local dealer to get it checked out next week just in case. I have to take it in for the axels clicking again.....

 

Yeah, you're probably putting boost into it in 2nd, which it REALLY doesn't like until it's warmed up a bit. I live on the bottom of a hill, so I use my boost gauge to see if I can give it more throttle or not, haha.

 

mine did it with the ac on. 1st thru 3rd gear it felt like it lagged alittle so i knew it was the spark plugs because it never did it before and i took them out and regaped them and it runs like a champ!

 

back to the dealership it goes next week. God this car is temperamental. I cant get on it and I cant be nice to it. lol....

 

.30 is a very small gap for a stock or mildly moded LSJ. Most people won't need a .30 gap if i were the OP i would try .40 and work your way down .