Hesitation/sputter in first gear

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Hey guys,

So this morning leaving work headed to school, I was leaving the parking lot turning into an intersection and I noticed a slight sputter or hesitation in my car. I don't know if it was the tranny or not. I hadn't even hit 10 mph before I noticed a slight hesitation or sputter that lasted maybe a second. No check engine light or any light at all came on when this happened. I'm fairly sure that it's not a bad spark plug because I just changed them(oem) about 10k miles ago but I did do a drain and fill on the tranny(oem fluid)yesterday. I've got a little under 103k miles on the car now and this has never happened before. It literally reminds me of driving my dads ole 81 custom 20 Chevy on a cold morning with the engine being stubborn till it warmed up. I know for a fact that I put the correct amount of tranny fluid back into the transmission when I refilled it so I'm certain that that's not a contributor but I feel as though I'm out of my realm of knowledge here. It may be just a one time thing but i don't like not knowing. Especially since the wife and I have a vacation coming up in the next 3 weeks.

I've driven this car In sub zero temps several times when I was stationed in Virginia for three years and never did I have this happen. As a matter of fact I had the car running about two minutes before I ever backed out of the parking space I was in so I know the car wasn't sputtering due to a cold "crank and haul". Anything you guys have would be helpful! Sorry it is an automatic transmission.

The vehicle is my civic in my signature
 
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I'm gonna guess it was in fact something in the tranny or the car relearning or a valve passage filling with oil then slamming into action. I got a "chirp" out of my benz diesel going into 2nd after a trans service-- if you know these cars, they don't chirp much.
laugh.gif


Cars ignore one-time fluke things like misfires when they're cold, so if you deserve a code, you'll get one.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I'm gonna guess it was in fact something in the tranny or the car relearning or a valve passage filling with oil then slamming into action. I got a "chirp" out of my benz diesel going into 2nd after a trans service-- if you know these cars, they don't chirp much.
laugh.gif


Cars ignore one-time fluke things like misfires when they're cold, so if you deserve a code, you'll get one.


That's what's weird. I had enough time for the tranny to shift into second gear before having to slow down at the light at the intersection and it didn't sputter while in 1st gear beforehand.
 
The only two codes I have ever gotten from this car was once for a "check fuel cap" and once again for a check engine because I had gotten in a hurry changing the plugs before and didn't realize that the tip on one was bent so it caused a misfire in that cylinder. I replaced that one spark plug and that issue was never more.
 
Could it be a combination of going from on throttle to off throttle and the ac compressor kicking on at the same time and it taking the idle control system a second to catch up? This happens with my older civic when the ac is on every once in a while. It's more noticeable with a small engine.
 
Did you use honda atf and did you double check the amount in there? Honda has specific instructions for checking atf level on dipstick. My ford expedition prefers motorcraft atf rather than mobil 1 or castrol that i have tried. Go figure.
 
Originally Posted By: merconvvv
Did you use honda atf and did you double check the amount in there? Honda has specific instructions for checking atf level on dipstick. My ford expedition prefers motorcraft atf rather than mobil 1 or castrol that i have tried. Go figure.


Yes i did make sure it was Honda ATF DW-1. I only use oem fluids except the oil which is M1 EP
 
Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Could it be a combination of going from on throttle to off throttle and the ac compressor kicking on at the same time and it taking the idle control system a second to catch up? This happens with my older civic when the ac is on every once in a while. It's more noticeable with a small engine.


The a/c wasn't on
 
See if it rears its head. One time sputter? Id be under the hood a couple times a week!

I had a mazda 6 2.2? sedan with a recurring flat spot on acceleration at about 20K miles . No mazda tech could find it.
Frustrated, I took the intake plumbing apart looking for varmints. Low an behold I found the rubber intake tube AFTER the air meter had a 2" long crack THROUGH on the underside of the accordion and it was opening up and letting in unmetered air when the engine torqued over a bit during acceleration.

No MIL = no problem (I get that from dealers service AND co-workers) is a bunch of hooey!

Check your plumbing and airbox. Check MAF.

On sparkers, Did you use same plugs that came OUT set to same gap? (0.8mm is too tight likely)

You may just have some watery alchohol in the bottom of the tank.
 
Yeah I used the exact same oem brand plugs that came out. And they were correctly gapped. I only run 93 octane gas in it so I may have just gotten ahold of a bad batch this last time. After driving to school today I had no issues and a few hours after getting here, we won't on brake for a half hour and then I went to the store right down the street and had no issues again
 
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