I have a very hard to explain issue with my car, mechanically. When you are driving normally its fine but if you are driving normally and decide to get on it and down shift to lets say 2nd or 3rd, it jerks back and it might delay giving you the power and the tork that you should be getting, it pauses to think whats going.

Same type of situation sometimes happens when im getting on it from dead stop, stop light or something. I stomp on it on 1st gear but from 1-3k rpm it doesn’t give the power that should be, then it starts to roar like it should by the time it hits 4k rpm then it might do the same in 2nd gear or it might not. Lets just say I can NOT do a burnout in my car. Weird ha? Definitely something that should be fixed.

Its doesn’t happen always but it definitely happens enough for me to be concerned and wanting it to get it fixed.

Its very unconsistant, when driving it hard that is. It could give you the power that you should expect in a 0-60 that you feel the urge to do or it could give you the trouble that im explaining. I say out of 10 times it'll atleast do it 4 times, which isn't good. When it gives me this trouble its very inconsistant in giving me powers through out the gear, i feel like i have a turbo, im waiting for the power to kick in at anytime though it should already be giving it.

I absolutely do not have any clue where the issue might be coming from. My brother said fuel filter is a possibility. Becasue of the unpredictible distribution of the torque and unconsistancy in power thats just a guess he had. I'm not sure if the problem is as simple as replacing a $15 fuel filter from wal-mart, though i would certainly be dowing backflips from joy if it was lol but i have a feeling that this is a complicated issue that i might have to get it professionally diagnosed from somewhere to find out the problem.

Unfortunately I have a feeling that this might be a costly fix which I do not have the money for as of now, and it might have to wait tell the end of summer where I have worked 40hrs a week with bunch of money saved up. When you drive it without getting on it you can’t tell one bit that it has this problem, it drives perfectly when your driving it sanely, which I sometimes don’t lol.

My car is a 1998 Camaro z28, everything is stock except the K&N air filter.

Alittle bit of a history about the car: I bought it October 2008 and the clutch went out on me month and a half later so i fixed a clutch. The old clutch and the current clutch were 180 degree different, the old one was much more aftermarket and it was much higher so you could put your foot on it faster to change gears quicker where as my current one which i replaced is a stock camaro clutch. Before the change of the clutch i feel like the car had much bigger pull, it definitely felt more aggressive, when you stepped on it you felt your whole body being pushed back into your seat like nitrous but after the clutch change it became much more laid back and a stock car. This issue that im describing didn't just show up over night, it kinda built up over time, and now you can tell it much much easier.

SO with my mysterious problem, i turn to you wise technicians and mechanics on the forum to help me have a clue where i might look at. Give me some ideas where the problem COULD possibily be at.

Thanks alot in advnace

 

If I were you, first I would clean the maf, do a tune up with plugs and wire, fuel filter is literally a 30 second job so I would go ahead and do that too, and see where you are. Who installed your clutch? IF it had an aftermarket clutch in it prior to your stock one, it may have had a shim under the slave cylinder which is causing your stock clutch to wear prematurely due to not being fully engaged, and it could be slipping now. Was the master and slave changed at the same time as the clutch? With the finicky hydraulics on these cars that is always a good idea.


Also, you might want to put your flame suit on since you're admitting to beating on your car even when you know something isn't right with it

 

Thanks alot for the feed back, i'll try to do the basic maintenance that you speak of soon by hopefully end of june. It was an aftermarket clutch before my current stock clutch but im not sure what band or anything specific on it. I can tell you the clutch is not slipping though, i thought of the same thing and i took it to a local dealer to ask him that specific question so he wouldn't have to do along diagnosis that would cost me a fortune and he drove it and confirmed that the clutch seemed to have been installed and is functioning correctly. Nothing else was changed during the installation of clutch. Only the clutch was changed.

Lol and i do have my flame suit on thanks, i know the car is ill but it is still capable of putting alot of smile on my face, my right foot can slip from time to time and i forget my car has the flu lol

 

I know what you mean, I'm guilty too still bangin gears when my rear end is about to implode on itself, probably causing a small black hole and the end of life as we know it because of all the abuse I put it through.

Honestly though, slave cyl problems can be hard to tell. Mine seemed fine except it would sometimes be really hard to shift, come to find out the bushing/bearing thing on the front of it fell off and was in the bottom of the bellhousing. I never found it until I pulled the tranny to do something else.

 

Can you please explain this slave cylinder problem that you think might be the case. Becasue i wanna understand it and maybe describe it to a mechanic.

Thanks

 

I would try to do the simple stuff first. I was just trying to think of things based on your description. If you said it doesn't seem to be slipping then you should be ok.