QuestionHello David,
My wife and I have a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick JX 4 Door…
When it's cold out, and it gets that way up here in Canada, or cold & damp, it has an intermittent problem:
It starts up fine, idles ok, you can even rev it up as long as you do it slowly, but when you try to accelerate quickly, it's almost like your taking your foot off the gas.
When you let off the gas and the pedal returns to just about the idle position, you can rev it up again and you have power. Makes for some tricky driving: Want to accelerate, don't push so far down on the gas pedal!
It sounds like a quiet 18 wheeler slowing down when this happens; "BUURRRRR." As a side note: It does not backfire when you're trying to floor it when it's just not going.
And then later in the day, you go out, and some car pixie waved a magic wand, and it runs great! No problems. You can floor it and it accelerates, up-hill, even cold!
It can even "Fix itself" SOMETIMES if you drive it for a while. But when you think warming it up and driving for 10 or 20 minutes will help, it is no guarantee that it will run normal. Sometimes you have the same problem no matter how far you drive.
It doesn't seem to do this during the nice, dry, warm summer months. We did replace the MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor) with a used one last winter, and it still has the same problem.
Any suggestions, before I pull all my hair out, would be most welcomed.
Thank you David!
AnswerTry inspecting EVERY ground you can find, on the battery, engine, body, etc, and try tightening any that have bolts that are a little loose, and cleaning any that are dirty, even a little dirty. (electrons hate dirt, you know...)
I suspect possibly the engine temp sensor, or oxy sensor.
Using the factory manual, do the diagnosis, and see if all the resistances/voltages are up to snuff.
This is one of those things that will take careful methodical persistence.
Oh, yeah, don't forget the Throttle position sensor!
