Engine Stutter on 2000 I-30

[i30atl80]

Whenever my I-30 has been sitting for more than a few hours and I start it up and begin to drive the car, there is a stutter in the acceleration for the first couple hundred feet, then it is fine. I just changed out all of the oxygen sensors and thought that that may fix it, but it did not.

It's got about 97K miles and I have not yet changed out the spark plugs. Could that be it?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance....

[Beancooker]

What grade of Gasoline are you using? If you're not using premium, that could be it.

Spark plugs, or MAF...

[i30atl80]

I usually use mid-grade or premium so I don't think that is it. I went ahead and bought the plugs for it. How easy are those to change? Anything that I should know?

Also, would the check engine light come on if the MAF sensor was out?

Thanks,Jeremy

[acidjake75]

I would check the MAF first....could be a number of things. Coils are also a common problem too. BUt that can get expensive. when you change the spark plugs do the rears first (hard part). Then the rest is cake...

[i30atl80]

Thanks. I'll change out the spark plugs this weekend (needs to be done anyway) and if that doesn't help, I'll get the MAF checked out. Can I get that done at Auto Zone? Or do you have to run a full diagnostic?

[acidjake75]

invest in a OBDII scanner - so you can pull your own codes.. yes autozone should be able to do that for you. Also spend the extra 6 bucks for MAF cleaner, Ive heard good things about it vs having to buy a new MAF all together. Also for a good coil test.

leave car idling and pull each coil out (individually) if the engine bogs or sounds like its going to die then that coil is good.if nothing happens when you pull coil out - then more than likely that coil is bad..

on a side note - if one coil is going bad - the others will soon follow.

I hope this helps some - and anyone else can correct me if I am wrong..

Good luck holmes..

[i30atl80]

Thanks...I will test everything out and post the results here for others that may have the same issue...

[vinniepoohbear]

I have had the exact same problem, exact same car.

If you don't fix it now, it gets worse. I'm to the point of stalling out. I went the O2 sensor way myself (or at least started to) after finding TSB all over the place on them. I did get a check engine light, and my girlfriend's father came by with a diagnostic machine just after I got the old O2 sensor disconnected (I didn't have the right socket to remove the sensor...he did). Well, he started the car with the O2 sensor disconnected (oops), so obviously we got some codes there. So he cleared the codes, put it back together and what do you know? No more codes. Couldn't get anything to come back, but still stalling.

Put changing the O2 sensor on hold (he suspects fuel filter/pump problems), especially after reading you replaced them with no luck.

Please update if you find the problem, I'm still trying.