WOT and high RPM shifting does clean out carbon too.

 

That is true. I do it every day. 7k rpm is not a strange sight for my engine...

 

Ok, here's the best way to describe the issue that I think might plague all 6 speeds. I could be wrong though.

On my car, when it's cold, and only when it's cold, if I take off and shift to 2nd gear (most noticeable in 2nd) and keep the RPMs arount 3000, not accelerating, not decelerating, simply keeping RPMs steady, it feels as though it sputters....not a smooth feel. I've been driving for 22 years and have owned probably 20 cars in my lifetime, from fuel injected, to turbo charged, carburated, flathead, 4 cyl, v-6, v-8, you name it. The best way to describe this is that it feels as though it's misfiring. I know no code comes out but that's the way it feels. I live in a small town, so there are basically no other CLS's to compare this problem with so I'm kinda at the mercy of everyone else here...oh, and the dealerships who believe this is some sort of ghost problem.

 

Just changed my fuel pump. It bumped my fuel pressure up about 6 psi at idle from ~23 to ~29. I didn't have a chance to see what it was at during WOT. My air/fuel ratio got much better. At low acceleration it was bad as expected, but at WOT and mid acceleration it was between 11.xx and 13.xx A huge improvement from 13.5 to 15.5 Anyways, car pulls a bit better, but... STILL SPUDDERS On that note, I don't think that changing my FPR will help any either. Fixing my header leak soon and will keep you folks posted.

 

Don't hesitate to buy the car - it's more of an annoyance than a real problem, I think.

 

aight i'll still be geting it, does it do it when u guys are racing? i dont want to take on my friends g35 and have my car sputter out or whatever yall say it does

 

No...as I posted above, mine appears to be related to relatively low RPM shifts which drop me below 2k RPM. In a race, or any high-revving situation, the engine is on boil well above 2k and I've never noticed the problem.

You should be fine taking on the g - just watch out for his torque off the line!

 

yea you will be fine. mine just does it when i am crusing a low rpms. about 10-20 mph in 2nd or 3rd. durring wot or higher rmps it doesnt happen. good luck

 

good to hear. I think i'm gonna get my fuel pump changed as well. The dealership said mine is fine and they checked the injectors and said those were fine too, but something inside is just telling me that the fuel pump is the cause for my problems. my problems are worse at lower RPM and slowly grow to be unnoticeable as the RPMs go up. at about 1250-1500 RPM it's the worst. The spuderring problem I noticed happens most noticeable when I'm going up an incline at relatively low speed and lower. RPM (1500-3000RPM).

To me it just seems at lower RPM my fuel pump isn't responding as precisely as it should.

 

I'm really thinking that's more an issue of not having enough torque below 2k RPM and the engine never seems to recover until quite a ways up the RPM band in the same gear.

1500 RPM is awfully low for our cars & the engine's really bogging down there. Begins to make me wonder if different gearing would really be the cure for our cars, assuming they geared it for quick accel. in 1st to make up for that lack of torque...I just don't know enough about it to say for sure

 

I dunno if I believe that or not because my car was running fine at 1500 RPM i 2nd gear before. there's no reason why it should do it in that gear now. It's understandable for it to spudder if you were in 3rd gear or 4th gear at that low of an RPM, but not 2nd gear.

and the other throttle type issue with my car that is worse at lower RPM is there is a bad jerk/lurch a few seconds AFTER i let off the throttle, and it happens in any gear. The funny thing is, it's the worse when I'm in 2nd gear at low RPM.

 

Do you have any mods? I don't and my car doesn't produce squat in terms of power that low, no matter what gear (gear shouldn't matter - 1500 RPM is 1500 RPM). Maybe you're producing more low-end torque somehow?

That lurch does sound odd. Don't have anything like that going on...

 

All I've got is the Comptech Icebox at the moment.

 

whats seafoam?

 

i'm getting that too on my '01 CL-P. 35k miles only.. =[

 

i get the same thing. its almost not noticeable because i've gotten used to it, but its like a slight hesitation when you throw it into 2nd or 3rd somtimes. i thought one of my valves could be slightly bent. i'm going to seafoam soon. i'll post the results when i'm done

 

http://www.seafoamsales.com/

 

Last week I put in a bottle of Techron cleaner when I filled my tank. I don't think it'll help, but we'll see.

 

I forgot to ask you, what fuel pump did you go with? Did you just replace it with a new OEM fuel pump? Did you also change your fuel filter?

 

Walbro 255 LPH. It comes with a replacement filter that's slightly larger than the OEM one, but guess it's b/c of the increased fuel flow. It's not the typical inline filter that you normally see. It's just a bag filter that goes on the suction end of the fuel pump.

Found the exhaust leak and it was in the CT flex pipe and not the header. Car sounds a million times quieter. I'm not sure if it effected the O2 sensor readings and caused the car to react differently, but I will drive it in a few hours after work and take a better look to see how it feels.

 

Just real quick... Ive noticed that no one has spoken of the IMRC valve. I had that slight drop in power before but, mine was right before the v-tec kicked in and it was only a slight drop in power. I took it to the dealer and of coarse they could not feel the drop in power. I told the mechanic about the IMRC valve which he new nothing about and looked into it and found it was out of the expected range only periodically. they replaced it when I still had the warrenty.
I have this sputter problem now as well. For me it is mostly around 6k RPM and feels somewhat like the rev limiter mal functioning for a split second.
Thus here I am lookong for clues to solve the problems we have too.

For those who have slight drop in power, search IMRC valve

 

Well add another 03 CLS 6spd to the list. I get the same sort of hesitation under hard acceleration in 2nd gear. It seems to happen when the car is warmed up though. Disconnecting the battery for a few minutes always clears up the problem, but it ALWAYS comes back. It just seems like a big loss in throttle response. Ive tried seafoam, changed plugs, cleaned filter, but nothing works.

Any updates on this??

 

Dont think anyone ever figured out what it is for sure, mine has not done it in over 6 months though. Was doing it all the time when i first bought the car

 

ok so i have come to some conclusions. i have the sputtering and loss of power. its either the imrc, or clogged dirty filter, or exhaust leak in my downpipe from hitting the ground a lot. i seafoamed it. didnt do anything for me.

 

Sorry guys, didn't update this post as well. I only posted the answer in another thread. Once I changed my flex pipe, and ran it for a while, the spuddering was gone!!! I was so happy, it was like having a new car again. I was scared and thought my tranny was going but guess not. It seems like the exhaust leak caused bad O2 sensor readings and caused my engine to do weird things. Anyways, car runs smooth and all is well. Hope this is the same thing for you guys.

 

well i dont have aftermarket headers on yet, and i just witnessed a big rpm drop in 4 gear while just cruising??? is my tranny going out? my maintenance light came on the other day too... i'm about to do a search to see why my maintenance light could be on, its not throwing any codes... any input is appreciated

 

more than likely its the random misfire code.

 

got the maint. req. light figured out but still curious as to why my car puttered out so bad cruising in 4th... made me to scared to race this prick in a eclipse shortly after

 

my car through a code P1259 manufacture control fuel air metering...?

 

ITS THE TRANNY - 04 TL with the same thing...TRANNY free under warranty...very common problem.

 

Maybe that's it. I kind of thought it was an engine control thing because it stops when you reset the ECU and comes back after a while. I didn't get any check engine lights though

I have CT headers too. . I'll have to check for leaks now.

 

I just bought an 03 cl-s 6speed and I have the same sputtering/hesitation at around 2-3k in 2nd and 3rd gear. Mine started doin this after I Put my headers in.. Is there an update to this problem did anyone find out whats causing it?

 

Yes, mine was an exhaust leak in the flex pipe. I have an auto, but same exacty symptoms. Specifically 2nd gear and 2200 RPMs. Once you pass the spudder, it's fine right. I would suspect the same thing in your case since you just added headers and now the problems started.

 

Hello rtatsutani,

My symtoms sound the same as yours. My 93 accord that started sputtering latley in second gear around the same rpms as you. i do also have a leak in my flex pipe. Is that whats the problem. Shortly after that my check engine light came. No, I did not replace my headers and its an auto. Your feedback would be appreciated.

 

Sorry, Did not read the posts above. I think I found my solution. Change the flexpipe correct?

 

My 03 6MT does the same thing - feels like one cylinder drops to 75% power. It occurs in 2nd or 3rd gear at low rpms and the engine temperature doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't bother me enough to start chasing the problem but I would pay for a fix it if I knew what the fix was.

When it happens I take my foot off the gas pedal and let the rpm's drop for a second before resuming my acceleration... and the sputter is usually gone.

Based on the sputter's frequency I strongly believe it's related to the coil packs and/or spark plugs.

While reading this thread and seeing other people's experience with the flex pipe I've come up with another theory to throw out to you guys - Might the sputter be caused by some type of resonance or harmonic in the exhaust system?

 

Yeah, I had to change the flex pipe. Unfortunately I had a clogged cat and have another leaky flex pipe

 

Its so weird how this thread come up on my search for "Spark Plugs"
Anyway this is the exact symptom i have 2-3 gear slight sputtering; let off gas and gradually accelerate again and the sputtering is gone.

So it was the flex pipe for all you guys?

so every 6 speeder here has the XS powerheaders? with this problem?

 

i dont know if this helps but i had a prelude do this and it was a timing issue which caused the problem once it was fixed it ran great.

 

Wish we could adjust timing in these cars
thanks for you input anyway !