Well I've had my car for about 6 months now and can't seem to figure out what the problem is with it. It's an 04' autostick and about to hit 40K miles. I've searched on benzworld and can't find exactly what my problem is.

Baisically, driving the car hard it has no problems at all, but if you just want to slowly go up in speed... lets say around 50MPH, you give it just a little bit of gas and hold it there until it goes up to 60MPH, the car feels like it goes in and out of gear, or the engine is missing. You can even watch the tach slightly go up and down. Sometimes it's going over 40MPH, sometimes it's in sport shift mode, but it definitely does it more when it's left in D (what I use the most). I also have yet to get over 250miles to a single tank, even with lots of interstate driving. It seems it doesn't matter whether I drive it hard or not, it's always terrible? It also seems to do it worse with certain gas stations. It does it less often with BP/Amoco.

The only thing I can think of is maybe the MAF, I bought cleaner for it but haven't gotten around to buying a security torx to take it off. I know there is no way of checking the tranny fluid ourself. I wouldn't think it would have a bad spark plug already, but it doesn't idle poorly ever, starts everytime perfectly, etc. The battery does corrode though right after I clean it. Maybe it's something with the fuel system.

I have no warrenty and don't have much money to turn it in and have it looked at. I even change my own oil to save money. I was hoping a car with such low miles wouldn't have any major problems until it was paid off, now I've been nervous about my choice getting this car because of this one problem, it sucks.

Anyhow, any help at all would be really appreciated.

 

Hi, I believe what you are experiencing is the normal behaviour of the auto gearchange. I have the auto too, and it is an anoying characterisic of this type. All thats happening is that when you increase power (even QUITE gently) the torque converter shifts you from 5th gear to 4th gear You hear the revs increase and see the rev counter needle climb and watch your mpg drop, when actually all you want it to do is stay in 5th and accelerate a little. Virtually all automatics do this. As an experiment, switch over to winter mode and youll see that the gearbox is a little more docile, pulling away in 2nd and going through the gears at lower speeds. I prefer the winter mode because of this
Steve