Trying to help my sister. Her 98 Corolla with almost 200K miles is experiencing some severe hesitation on acceleration especially when cold. She leaves the house, drives a few blocks and then when ready to pull out into traffic it will hesitate on her. She has to back off on the gas pedal and try again. Also the same story when leaving work. Apparently the hesitation is still there when the engine is fully warmed up but it's less noticeable. Not sure if this is related but she also complains of the transmission sometimes sticking in 1st or 2nd gear.
One of the auto parts stores tried to scan for an error code in the computer and found only a misfire in cylinder #2 recorded. We replaced spark plugs this last weekend as a starting point as it had been several years since those and the wires had been changed. It seemed to start and idle better but she said the hesitation was still there although not as bad. The plug wires showed no signs of arc burning or deterioration so we left them in for now.
Unsure where to proceed from here. Obviously an older car that she doesn't want to put a lot of money into by randomly replacing parts and hoping to hit the right one. Don't know if we are looking for a bad coil or plug wires or sensor, injector, etc.
She has driven this car for 13 years and has taken very good care of it. I have been very impressed with this little car. No problems with it aside from normal things that wear out such as brakes, struts, light bulbs, tires and so on. I'm sorry to not have more and better descriptions of the symptoms. I keep trying to ask her questions about the driveability issues to give us better clues as to what's going on but she and I talk different languages where cars are concerned.
This is all I have to go on for now. Anybody have any suggestions where I might start looking for the problem? I do not have a factory tech manual for this car so I'm without any type of troubleshooting guide or description of the fuel system. Thanks.
One of the auto parts stores tried to scan for an error code in the computer and found only a misfire in cylinder #2 recorded. We replaced spark plugs this last weekend as a starting point as it had been several years since those and the wires had been changed. It seemed to start and idle better but she said the hesitation was still there although not as bad. The plug wires showed no signs of arc burning or deterioration so we left them in for now.
Unsure where to proceed from here. Obviously an older car that she doesn't want to put a lot of money into by randomly replacing parts and hoping to hit the right one. Don't know if we are looking for a bad coil or plug wires or sensor, injector, etc.
She has driven this car for 13 years and has taken very good care of it. I have been very impressed with this little car. No problems with it aside from normal things that wear out such as brakes, struts, light bulbs, tires and so on. I'm sorry to not have more and better descriptions of the symptoms. I keep trying to ask her questions about the driveability issues to give us better clues as to what's going on but she and I talk different languages where cars are concerned.
This is all I have to go on for now. Anybody have any suggestions where I might start looking for the problem? I do not have a factory tech manual for this car so I'm without any type of troubleshooting guide or description of the fuel system. Thanks.
:thumbup:
