I have a '97 ex. Let me give you the past history. This was my wife's car prior to us getting married and I don't know the service history. When I would accelerate normally between 15 and 35 mph range the car would drop from 2500-3000 RMP's to 1000 and then kick back in. This would only happen in this speed range and only for the first couple of minutes of driving. It would not happen every time. I noticed that the fuel filter looked like the orginal from the factor and that isn't good since it's 11 years old and has 161,000 miles on it. I took the old fuel filter off, emptied it, and blew threw it. I did the same for the new one. It took about twice as much blowing to get the same amount of air out of the old filter, so it did seem to be clogged somewhat. I replaced the filter and it seems to have fixed the problem about 90%. It no longer drops in the RPM range when accelerating however, now occassionally it will stay at the same RPM range for a second and not accelerate and then it will continue as normal. It only does this on the same occasions as the previous problem. Any Suggestions on what to try next before I spend a lot of money?

 

Is the CEL ON?

You might want to measure the fuel pressure to see if it is low. If so, the fuel pump might be faulty.



Also, when was the last basic tune up (plugs/wires/distributor cap/rotor) done? Have you checked the ignition timing?

 

Last tune up was maybe a year ago, so around 12,000-15,000 miles.........Haven't checked ignition timing............CEL is not on!

 

Here's how to check and set the ignition timing: