Hi, my name is mike, and right now my car (95 Talon ESi) is sitting in my driveway from this hesitation/studdering problem I have been getting. It was very little at first like I was going down the highway and it was hesitating in fifth gear at lower RPMs, and all of a sudden when I am near home, it comes on real bad, starting to do it in every gear, and really studdering and hesitating. I used an inductance meter on it, and I am getting misfiring on pistons 1 and very little on 2. But my car hasn't thrown out any errors yet. I already took it up to get an engine diagnostic test done, and they said it threw out a TON of errors, which got me to think that my comp is bad, because the check engine light will not come on. Plus I also replaced my spark plugs, and found a decent amount of oil in the first two wells, and a little bit in the fourth, but I am pretty sure I have some bad spark plug grommets, and a bad valve cover gasket. I have searched on here for what it could be, and the list of stuff that I have found could be either of these: Valve cover gasket / spark plug grommets, Plugs(which I know its not these now) , Wires, Ignition Coil, ECU, or the cam angle wires. Also the car does idle very poorly now, because it is missing at idle. One other thing is that if I quickly give it some gas at idle, I hear a backfire out of the intake, which is probably from excess gas in the cylinder from being misfired. But I need peoples opinions on what I should check / do and what I should replace first. If you have any more questions please email me at timmay87@neo.rr.com and my AIM name is stub872005

check your e-mail do0d
_________
96 talon esi-t
san clemente, ca


as needles of ice
are the ill winds' talons

Anyone else have any other opinion on what to do, before I go out and spend a ton of money on replacing parts that I dont need to replace yet?

If you're getting misfire on 1 and 2, swap those plug wires to 3 and 4 (and vice versa). If you get the same problem in 3 and 4 then, you know it's your wires. Bosch silicone replacements run about $30 at Autozone. If the misfire stays in 1 and 2, then it's possiby plugs in those cylinders or coil imo.

Swap your wires and retest do0d.

EDIT:
You should also look to replace the VC gasket and get some new plugs. Altogether, this solution set should run you less than $100 and covers the most common sources of the problem.

Finally, does your CEL even light when you first start the car? If it doesn't light at all, it could just be that the bulb is toast and not the ECU.

Well, I just got back from autozone, and I bought some Bosch Wires, some motorcraft Plugs, and then a valvecover gasket, and spark plug grommets, and I am gonna go install all of this right now, and post again to see if it all fixed my problem.

I have an extra stock coil as well as stock wires. Email if you wanna purchase one. =)

EDIT: I see you have wires now...

ok, well I installed all of that today, but I am gonna have to wait till tomorrow to start it up, because the silicon needs to sit there for 16 - 24 hours. But I also have another question, After I took off my valve cover, I cleaned up everything, and put the gasket, and grommets in place on the valve cover, and then set it all in place and the gasket i got is blue, so after I put the cover back on, and bolted it down correctly, i could see about 1 - 1.5 mm of blue trim in between the valve cover, and head. Maybe i just now noticed it because the old gasket was grey, and really dirty. But I will find out if all this works tomorrow. anyubody know if that blue trim should be showing a little?

anybody think that blue trim is supposed to be there..... since my old gasket looked blackish / grey?

You will see some gasket material afterwards. The VC does not meet the head that closely.

/me continues crossing fingers

ok, well this sucks, I started it up, and all is good, idles fine, warms up normal, so I then give it a little gas, and it revs normal, andim like cool. So I look for any signs of leak in the valve gasket, and none, so I get in and go around the block a few times, and it drives perfectly fine. so i then go to work, get off, and drive back home in really heavy rain, and notice some slight bucking agian!!!!!! but it is not getting as bad as it was before, so its either something else that is still broke, or it could be from the water on the road going up in my intake, since my intake is really low to the ground. and there was about 2 or 3 inches of water on the road cuz it was raing so hard, but I think my problem is coming back already!!! someone help me!!!

Please someone respond, I need some help!!!

you didnt suck up water, you're be straight up owned if you did.

replace the fuel filter and see if that helps.

edit: and your coil pack, like i said a few days ago, sounds like a possible culprit. like someone said ^^ above me, they have the stock stuff. so do i, if you want the stock coilpack i can send it to you or you can go on modernperformance and get the msd one or the screamin demon from howell

good luck

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

96 Black ESi
91 Red TSI AWD (RIP)
02 WRX


"turnin wrenches for nine hours in the pouring rain, just to get the beast up and running again"

Aerospace Certified TIG welder for Precision Castparts in Portland, OR.

JoshSpair.com

the only reason I dont want to go and replace the coil, is because I have read about so many people on 2gnt that have done it, and it didn't fix the hesitation problem. But the oil in my spark plug wells, did cause the huge stuttering, etc. but thats all fixed. Also does anyone think a somewhat leaky HG can cause this bucking in 2nd - 5th gear at around 2000-3500 RPMs?

change ur plugs, if it runs well for a little bit, then gets shitty again:

1. wires
2. coil
3. spark is arcing to the head

i still have my stock coil. =)

Here are the things I have replaced:

1.Plugs, gapped them to .050
2.Wires
3.PCV Valve
4.Valve Cover Gasket, and spark plug grommets


Here are the things I have yet to try from searching on these forums:

1.O2 sensors
2.Cam Angle Sensor
3.EGR Valve
4.MAP sensor
5.Coil Pack

Any opinons on what to do next???

its not ur cam or crank sensor cause ur car wouldnt start at all.

02 sensors are very important as they relay info back to the ecu about A/F and shit. The rear one isn't much of a big deal but it the one on ur manifold is toast then it would run like shit.

BTW: I always tested my coilpack by pulling out each of the plug wires from the plug to see if I was getting a strong spark on each coil.

I eat emo kids for breakfast

1995 Eagle Talon (SOLD)
72' SuperBeetle
72' Standard Beetle
56' Deluxe Beetle

Man I just got done fixing this exact problem on My 99 and my Mom's 95. I did like you and replaced the plugs and valve cover gasket set only and it was fine then started all the stuttering again. Then I removed my plugs, cleaned them and installed new replacement wires. Problem solved. Since plugs aren't expensive, I would say get a new set and gap them. Install the new wires you have and all will be well. I bet.

dude youtr problem is either fuel or igniton related. its probably not the 02, there are other tell tale signs you havent mentioned for a bad 02 including a probable CEL if any of your sensors were bad, its not your cam angle wires do0d that was a special case with me. if the cam angle wires were messed up on your it would just crank and crank and crank and never start.

replace the COIL PACK, like we have been saying, who cares what you have read? how many miles are on your car? sounds to me like you might have forgot to change some basic shit like the fuel filter amd coil pack because yes, it is true...they do not last forever.

my money is on that the answer lies directly in front of you everytime you open your hood, it has 4 wires coming out of it and its black, its called the coil pack and it probly isnt putting out as much as it should.

again though, good luck. no need to make 2-3 threads though..just bizump this one

edit: could also be a clogged injector


_________
96 talon esi-t
san clemente, ca


as needles of ice
are the ill winds' talons

i dont mean to steal the thread, but my car is doing the exact same fucking thing except it does it really bad in first. and its getting worse. i was thinking it could just be plugs and wires but then i read this and there is all this talk about coils and o2 sensors and shit.

could it be a different problem since mine is only doing it on take off rather than through the gears? cuz i was also thinking it might be transmission related....

1998 GS
Mods: Cold air intake, Ported/polished stock intake manifold, AFX 55mm TB, Pacesetter header,
Custom Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system, AFX Underdrive pulley,
B&M short throw shifter(cut/welded), Symborski Shift Kit, Solid front motor mount, Monster ground wire kit.

Status: Finally up and running!

This sounds a lot like the problem I was having. Check your coolant temp sensor. They are cheap and if they go bad the will fuck your world up. I know it sounds weird, but trust me they do.

When my 99m had this same problem it threw a code for a random misfire on Cyl. 2. what I stated above fixed mine.

ok, someone please help me on where I can get a coil pack to test my car with, because I just got done replacing the fuel filter on my car, and what would you know, still got the same problem so I got to last things to try, the O2 sensor, or the coil pack. anyone know where I can get a cheap O2 sensor, and coil pack?

dude TWO people offered theor stock ones if you were payin attention myself included
_________
96 talon esi-t
san clemente, ca


as needles of ice
are the ill winds' talons

how new is yours?

Also, I tested mine for resistance across the coil, and it gets about 12.5 ohms from 1-4 and 2-3

Well i dont think i should reply here, but I started off with the same problem. Three years later and almost 3000 dollars later i still have the problem. Im sure i have a rare case of the lemons but heres my list of replaced parts.

Battery
Battery terminals
plugs
wires
coil
iac
air filter
map
injectors
fpr
head, and gasket
all seals
o2(front)
coolant temp sensor
fuel pump
fuel filter
gas tank
egr

And you know there is probably more that i havent touched yet but at this point im fed up with it. Good luck to you sir and i hope you read through these posts again because the info given is golden. COIL PACK MOFO!!!

Aem Cold Air AFX 55mm TB
Fidanza Cam Gears NGK Wires
AFX UDP Greddy Header
Gutted Cat Greddy Evo Catback
Energy Suspension MMI Eibach Sportlines
Tokico Blues...always more to come

I had this problem for a while too. I finally changed from a CAI back to the stock airbox, along with new plugs at the same time. That fixed it for good. Seems that a bit of water was fouling the plugs coming from the CAI.

Dom

hmmm, well i replaced my plugs,because they got fouled out by oil because of the valve cover gasket leaking, but I still had hesitation AFTER my car has been running for about 10 minutes, I wonder why it only does it after it has been running for a little bit.

Have you replaced your wires yet? I read this thread before and replied and can't remember. If not replace them and get another set of plugs. I mean what they are like 30 bucks for wires and 10 for plugs? I will very nearly guarantee it will fix it.

Well, I am going to post this message here, because tonight, I went and checked my new spark plugs gap, since I was still getting hesitation, and it was all the way at .050 so I took it down to .040 and now I havn't got any hesitation (knocks on wood) so if anyone else has a problem like me thats how to fix it.

lmao, 4 pages later its a plug gap...wow

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

96 Black ESi
91 Red TSI AWD (RIP)
02 WRX


"turnin wrenches for nine hours in the pouring rain, just to get the beast up and running again"

Aerospace Certified TIG welder for Precision Castparts in Portland, OR.

JoshSpair.com

o, and guess what 4 days later its back

I had that same problem, my car would always hesitate and buck at low rpms, I took off my MSD coil pack and put on the stock one and its 95% better....still a little bit of hesitation at really really low rpms, but i'm pretty sure it is my plug wires...they don't seal properly and I think it lets too much moisture in..

- Marc

PS. Change the damn coil pack already!!

damn dude, change the freaking coil pack already. I snatched up a spare that was offered here but there is still another one up there. Im starting to think my alternator is bad.

Aem Cold Air AFX 55mm TB
Fidanza Cam Gears NGK Wires
AFX UDP Greddy Header
Gutted Cat Greddy Evo Catback
Energy Suspension MMI Eibach Sportlines
Tokico Blues...always more to come