Hi everyone, it'* been quite a while since I've posted here (and that'* mostly a good thing since it means I've had no real problems!).

My car has been running great, with few minor exceptions, for the past 3 years or so. My most recent issue, before today, was a shuddering under positive boost...which was cleared up by replacing the plugs and wires. This was back in January. Plugs were AC Delco and wires were Autolite, if I remember correctly.

Tonight while going to the store, I noticed a pretty hard jerking suddenly while I was coming to a stop at a light. Long story (sort of) short, the engine seems to be bogging down when braking and the speed gets down to 15-10mph. At this point, the RPM'* seem to drop to 600-700 momentarily. Once I get to maybe 5mph or below, it stops jerking and is perfectly smooth. Idle also seems to be fine.

It'* also doing the same thing while accelerating - but only after shifting out of first gear, which seems to be problem-free. Basically, right after shifting into 2nd, it starts bogging down (to ~1000rpm maybe) for several seconds, and then it gets somewhat better - but even when it'* not jerking/bogging down, the power doesn't seem to be what it should. This is all with light to moderate acceleration.

Given that I drove the car somewhere else only 4-5 hours before this and it worked fine, I'm quite confused that it would suddenly develop such a problem. The only correlation that I can think of, is that I was driving relatively hard right before this started happening - some heavy acceleration with the boost gauge over 0, but I'm 99.9% sure I wasn't even flooring it at any point.

Are there any obvious things I can look for, that may have suddenly caused this problem? My first thought (or perhaps fear) was transmission issue, but I hope that'* not it - I certainly don't have much money at all for repairs at this point. As far as I can tell, it seems to shift fine though, at least from 1st-2nd...for what it'* worth.

I should also mention that the Check Engine light, or any other light (except for the airbag one...separate issue) is not coming or staying on, at this point.

I'm in the process of moving (great time for this to happen...) and so I may not be able to respond for a few days. But any and all responses are greatly appreciated.

Edit: If it'* at all relevant or helpful, the car has roughly 136k miles on it at this point. I also noticed that, as I expected, it runs fine with the shifter in the '1' position. Will probably just drive it like that, under 25mph or so, until I have my stuff moved...(luckily only a block or two away, should be a single trip or two at the most...).

Thanks,
Matt

i was having a similar problem on my '95 ssei. when i would slow down or accelerate i would have the same issue of bogging down, almost to a complete stall. i later found out it was because of wear on the gears inside the transmission which caused the transmission to slip and then catch again, letting the engine rev for a moment and then catching it and almost stalling it. check the transmission soon as this could get much worse.

I would check the vacuum lines as well. Does the exhaust have a funny smell?