This problem started happening out of the blue. No changes were made to the car. Only current issues that I know of is the lifter tick causing knock.

At the boost for boobs meet I took a right turn in second gear around 3500 RPMs (usually where the knock goes away) I got in it coming out of the turn and the car just went POP POP POP POP bouncing off of 3500 like it was rev limited. We had a intermission shortly after so I turned off the car and popped the hood. Nothing was out of place i wiggled all of my connections an everything was good. We were on the move again and the car was fine...

It happened again a few miles later. We didn't have an intermission this time to save me so I did some testing to try and figure it out. Same thing coming out of the corner so I let off and shifted up to just a cruising speed. I slow accelerated up to 3500 RPMs and as soon as it hit 3500 it started breaking up no loud popping I figure because I wasn't WOT.

I feel like this is something electrical or ECU related. Because if I turn the car off and turn it back on the problem goes away. All of my logging figures are spot on (except for the knock/lifter tick). I'm in the process of replacing the lifters (came in the mail today) but I don't think they are causing this. It's almost like something is getting stuck in a loop and gets reset when i turn off the car.

Notes: its not the basic stuff. It's not plugs/wires/coil/boost leaks. It's not relevant to the amount of boost but it is relevant to RPMS.

My bet is fuel pump.

Thanks cheeky, but is there's a way to test that under load?

check your fuel filter and check the fuel sock, if its clogged with stuff it will cause it to buck and shimmy.

Fuel filter is less than 2 months old. Ill have to clean out my trunk and get to the pump. The car has almost zero rust so hopefully it wasn't be hard to get into.

Sticking injector?

Just replaced the Injectors with 550 RCs.


The fact that it only does it sometimes and can be temp fixed by turning the car off/on would make me think its not the injectors.

It'd be a good idea to check all of your ground wires as well, make sure nothing is intermittently shorting, causing it to go into fuel cut/etc, or similar.

Hope that helps!

-Jake

Thanks 50. Fuel cut would be the best way to describe what it feels like, but at low RPMs. Replacing the lifters tomorrow so ill go over all my wiring tomorrow

Do you have a keydiver chip or other ECU programming that includes a stutterbox? I had a similar issue on my car, albeit at a higher RPM. With the keydiver you can set the stutterbox RPM with the gas pedal (using the boost gauge as a reference) while the car is on, but not running. That's only half the magic, though. The Keydiver vamp's into the clutch sensor to determine when you are shifting. If that connection becomes lose or fails, then the Keydiver suddenly thinks the clutch is in all the time and boom, stutterbox while driving.

Sure enough, when I got under my steering wheel and took a look, the wire had come completely off. I soldered it back together (the installer used a barrel connector) and ta-da, problem solved.

I read about your problem (if not yours than someone with the exact same ) and that's not it. My ECU is factory non EPROM out of a 92 talon.

So the problem occurs during turns but doesn't go away after you get straight? If that's the case it doesn't sound like a fuel pick up problem although with anything fuel related, I am paranoid.

In every VR4 I have had one of my preventative maintenance jobs involves draining and flushing the tank, fitting a new pump or at minimum a new sock, flushing the lines, replacing the fuel filter and cleaning/replacing the injectors.

Well I very first noticed it on a sharp turn during the boost for boobs meet. Since then it has happened here and there during turns and long straight drives. But on the straight drives I don't have a way of knowing if a turn caused it or not. I'm not trying to get in it when I come out of every corner lol.

I was hoping the fact that it goes away when I cut the power and turn it back on would be a big clue, but it seems to just make it more confusing

I would check for a loose wire possibly around the ecu. It might just come a little bit loose when it feels pressure but stays together otherwise. I had a similar issue where it visually looked like everything was ok but when I started to wiggle wires, I found it right away.