Car sluggish when cold. My 1st post.

[sickguy]

Hey guys, this is my first post so I hope you guys can help. I have a stock '97 GST Spyder, manual with 60k miles. After I've done my 60k maintenance along with tune up, my car is sluggish for one or two seconds whenever I floor the gas pedal. This only happens when the car is cold, it's back to normal after about 10 mins of driving. I don't think the mechanic could mess up with the ECU settings when tuning up, so what gives?

Also, I have another problem which is i think either the engine or the front suspension making some knocking noise when going over bumps or making a right turn.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Red1]

Is the knocking noise repetitive or just one loud knock? I had one loud knock coming from my right-side suspension. It turned out I had bad ball joints and inner tie rod end. I got the recall done and that helped a little, but the dealer didnt tighten the bolts on all the way. I tightend them up and relapced the inner tie rod end and now its fine. No more knock. Hope this helps.

Robert

 

[AWDPetmitsu]

This post might help you.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100592


As for your noise, my guess is the ball joints. As mentioned, there is a recall out on that.

 

[sickguy]

Thanks for the help guys. But I just got the recall done about a month ago (lower ball joints). Probably they did a bad job because they didn't fix the noise, or maybe the noise is caused by something else.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

Just curious..Have you recently lowered the car?

 

[91awd]

You should let your car warm up if you are going to drive fast anyway.

 

[sickguy]

No, I didn't lower my car, just changed the shocks recently. But it happened before I changed the shocks. I will have the dealership check out the ball joints again. They should have fixed the recall part. As for the sluggish start, I always warm up my car like 5 mins every morning. Just wondering why it didn't have that before I sent the car in for 60k service. Weird. The performance of the car should be better after service.

 

[scuRRed whiTey]

1. Sluggish Problem

You can't, and I thought everyone would know this, boost your car when its cold. For one thing everything is very very tight and doesnt wanna give at all. Meaning, when you boost, you put even more pressure on the head gasket. People say and I know its been tossed around that boosting while your car is not to running temperature warps the head gasket.
The feelingwhen you go to boost it feels like the car losing power..and it bogs a little right and maybe jerks...well thats the computer probably, well i think, fuel cutting. Cause the air and eveyrthing is sooo overly dense no matter how much fuel u have going to ur engine it probably isnt enough for how cold the engine actually is. Figuring it being the winter and all and haveing ur engine sit over night probablt gets as cold or even colder than the air. Meaning 0 degrees maybe -10 degrees..which is way to cold to fire any tpye of fuel...and all it does is show theocmputer its not getting enough and it cuts.

Boost only when your warmed up, itll save the head gasket....


2. Knocking Noise

Yous aid when u turn or go over a bump?...its your suspension. I almost 100% sure. Alot of these cars as they get oldewr there suspension starts to suck. I know my friend has a laser with 290g miles on it. The suspension is hard and makes noises when you go over speed bumps.

My car has only 45,000 miles on it altogether and the suspension is very light and flowing very nice.

Neither of the problems I would worry about
just dont boost while ur car is cold.

 

[sickguy]

Yeah I won't worry about the fuel cut I think it's nothing major just have to drive slow when the engine is cold. I have to go to work at 7 every morning so that's probably maybe why the car sluggish. As for the suspension, i don't really want to make a hard turn now cuz the noise is like something breaking, really annoying. Anyone know how to check to see if it's the ball joint? Any easy way to diagnose that?

Thanks again. you guys are wonderful.

 

[markgholland]

Check for a boost leak....

 

[Red1]

Jack your car up and shake the wheel left and right. Feel for any free play. Compare both sides. Check for loose nuts. Check to see if your sring is situated in the strut properly.

The ball joints that are covered under the recal are the two on the bottom of each lower control arm. If your ball joints were done recently, they should look pretty new compared to the rest of the suspension.