Lately I've noticed that my car seems to be chuging a little. When I start to climb a hill and I hold the gas in a constant position the whole car starts to chug. If I give it just a little more gas and make it downshift, it runs fine. Does anyone out there know what could be causing this? Also, is it something that I should be real concerned with???

whats the status of your spark plugs/wire? how old/new are they?

The plugs and wires are both new. I installed the INTENSE level 1 performace package about a month ago and got the plugs with that. At that time I bought the wires so I could do them both at the same time.

can i safely assume that you have no check engine light on?

Not at the moment. Lately I've had a gas cap message come up on my info center but i've replaced that but still get it every now and again.

I'm kind of wondering if it could have something to do with my timing or something like that???

Transmission, I'm thinking TCC engage/disengage short cycling. May be the valve body showing signs of weakness. Does the tach pulsate in concert with the chugging? How many miles on the car?

I haven't noticed the tach bouncing with the chuging. I'll make sure to pay more attention to that thought. The car has about 74,000 miles on it and it doesn't feel like the tranny is slipping or anything like that.

Concerned? well, yes and no... you need to find out what is causing it (it will only get worse) however it may take a while, these suckers are tricky sometimes. It shouldn't hurt things too much, however your gas mileage will have likely dropped.

You may wish to double check the spark plugs to make sure none are cracked ... I had new plugs/wires installed and developed a "chuggle" 13k miles later... turned out the #6 plug was cracked from being installed a bit roughly. Come to think of it... it was put in the #3 spot for the time being...and it'* still there!

This is why I was suggesting possible transmission problem. When you give a little more gas, you take the TCC out of lock up, and then it runs fine. So, on acceleration there isn't any sign of chugging, correct?