Getting seasick

[LowSL2]

This one is hard to explain. If I drive along at a constant speed when driving around town it feels like the engine is surging. To the point where the wife won't ride in the car because it makes her sick. It's getting really annoying to me. But what's strange is if I go into boost or get on the freeway, it goes away. Anyone experienced this one before? It's a stock 92 R/T.

[bansheenut420]

TPS? I know when I had a loose plug, it would do weird things. Maybe check that out. Do you have access to a scanner?

[rx2mazda]

My car did this occasionally at low speeds, nothing too bad, but noticeable. Once I put the correct TIII crank sensor in it stopped. The guy I bought the car from used a Caravan sensor because he was too cheap to buy the correct 150$ TIII one.

[Screamin4banger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LowSL2 This one is hard to explain. If I drive along at a constant speed when driving around town it feels like the engine is surging. To the point where the wife won't ride in the car because it makes her sick. It's getting really annoying to me. But what's strange is if I go into boost or get on the freeway, it goes away. Anyone experienced this one before? It's a stock 92 R/T.

I've had that in a few different cars, never got seasick, just annoyed.

Since my symptoms occurred whenever I held the throttle at a constant angle while cruising, My solution was simple.

I stopped driving like that

I would drive like I was 17 again... speed up until I was tailgating, let off to coast, floor it to pass them...

I never felt the "surge" again.

This "solution" might not impress your wife.

[LowSL2]

I have an OTC 4000e scanner. And everything looks good. TPS doesn't fluctuate. MAP stays constant when at constant speed. It does however look like it corresponds with the O2 sensor though. The lurching or surging corresponds with the mixture going rich and lean. Does that make sense?

[bansheenut420]

I guess if the o2 was going out, it could be giving funny readings to the computer. I am not sure how much fuel control the o2 acutaly has. Do you by chance have a spare? When the voltage is going back and forth, does it do it fast? or stay at rich or lean for a second? Also, maybe check grounds. There is that ground on the back of the head. My car did some weird stuff when the grounds were getting bad. I recomend fwd's grounding kit when that starts to happen. I actually noticed a difference in the color and strength of my spark. and they are cheap x2
Hope that helps.

[mopar2ya]

O2 sensors fluctuate all over during a cruise.

[crazymadbastard]

try a higher gear, a bit less "go" but the ride is smoother.

[Black93RT]

My 93 R/T does this as well, can't figure it out. 35 mph in 3rd gear (maybe 4th) is a big culprit for me. I don't have a scanner, but need to bump this thread for suggestions. the weather is finally nice enough for me to drive it a couple times a week again.

[LowSL2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black93RT My 93 R/T does this as well, can't figure it out. 35 mph in 3rd gear (maybe 4th) is a big culprit for me. I don't have a scanner, but need to bump this thread for suggestions. the weather is finally nice enough for me to drive it a couple times a week again.

Does yours do this when the engine is cold or warm? I'm trying to isolate if this could be an issue with a sensor, closed/open loop operation or just the stock programming in the ECU.

[Black93RT]

It definitely happens when warm, I can remember specific places where it does it and they about 45 minute drive from my house.

I think it happens when cold also, I'm gonna take her for a spin today and I'll try to get more info.

[speeduphoria]

My GF's toyota camry does the same thing at very light throttle, its fine all other times, I'm thinking its plugs or wires related, or spark related in general. Changing plugs now, will let you know.

[Black93RT]

Just drove it for a bit. Seems more prevalent for sure when the car has reached temp. Happens at around 3k rpm usually, did steady 2nd gear cruise and got the "wave action" feeling at 2900-3000. Car is very smooth at almost all other times.

Could be spark plug/wire related...my plugs are pretty old, the wires are Magnecore KV85's (installing these wires made a huge improvement to my cars drivability when I got them many years ago)

[LowSL2]

I have some Magnecors on order right now. And the plugs are NGK V-powers with less than 400 miles on them. I'm going to try the spark plug wires and add a few more engine grounds and see if that helps.

[LowSL2]

I just installed some Magnecor wires and the surging isn't as bad. But still pretty noticeable. I also tried my Pathfinder 93 cartridge on my OTC and the refresh rate is a LOT faster than the Pathfinder 97 cartridge. When watching the O2 sensor it seems like it's slow to change from rich to lean. When I compare the O2 sensor on the R/T with one of my other cars (Saturn) it's like night and day. The Saturn responds very quickly. And the R/T responds really, really slowly. The wires going to the O2 sensor look to have been repaired some time ago by the previous owner. I might just cut it all out and replace it with all new wire. I might re-route it away from heat too.

Also: Since when did Magnecor make plug wires in blue? I thought they were all red?