Hey guys. I'm having a problem with my car. If I am driving along a straight road doing 35MPH (+/-) 10 MPH and the car is just rolling along. meaning I'm not accelerating or slowing down, but my foot is perfectly still on the accelerator my car will do what feels like it attempts to stall out. The car will studder and the tach will drop to the bottom peg and then pick back up like nothing has happened. I dont know what could be the problem. The engine will idle like normal and will pull like a maniac when you get on the gas. The problem only occurs at low speeds when you are neither accelerating or decelerating. I always run premium 93 octane in south FL. The problem occurs with/without the AC. It will occur about every couple hundred feet at 35MPH. Any ideas guys? I'd like to have some kind of an idea of what could cause this before I go into the dealer and they tell me there is nothing wrong with it
-Chris.

 

is the engine light on?

 

No Sir, The engine light is not on. Everything seems normal except that the car tries to stall over and over. Either the engine dips or maybe the transmission is sticking and overloading the engine?

 

sounds like what happened when my tranny failed the second time. do you get stuck in neutral for a while after it 'stalls'?

 

sounds like tranny to me. either that or clogged EGR.

 

well in answer to both of your Q's. Nope no problem with Neutral when I go from drive to reverse. I dont know what the EGR valve is. Maybe its the tranny, it feels weird during driving. Feels like it slips between gears sometimes and othertimes it shifts so hard that it feels like the tranny is going to drop out of the car.

 

When you said 35, I knew it was 45. Then you gave a margin of error of 10 mph; now I'm certain.

At around 45 mph, the torque converter locks up and this is what you are experiencing. It's perfectly normal. It's not right, but it is normal for our cars to do that. Don't worry about it too much. I know it probably bothers ya; I know it sure as hell bothers the hell out of me, but that's just the way it is.

But having said that, if this happens frequently, then you should get it checked out at the dealership. Mine only does it once in a while.

 

it happens to me every day..same road...same time..every 100 feet or so it drops out. It almost feels like an electrical issue where the plugs stop firing for a split second. I'll have to take it in and get it checked out. This is my second tranny. Thanks for your help

 

If it happens that often, then my gut feeling tells me that there's something wrong. Get it checked out. Good luck!

 

Is this related to my car slipping from 2nd to 3rd? It's getting worse and worse. Or is this just my 2nd tranny on it's way out...

 

Not necessarily. Like I said, it's the torque converter.