Truck Hesitates On First Acceleration

seadoons · June 22, 2003

My truck has right at 40,000 miles on it, and I have noticed lately that when the truck is cold, i'll back down my driveway, throw it in drive, hit the gas pedal, and it struggles to go. I changed the fuel filter at 30,000, and have done every fluid change imaginable. Ya'll have any ideas as to what it might be?

seadoons · June 23, 2003

Anybody?

Shaners · June 23, 2003

BY struggle do you mean the truck engine stumbles and hesitates, or do you believe it's in the driveline (tranny)?

seadoons · June 24, 2003

The engine is stumbling and hesitating. Nothing in the driveline. Any ideas?

bigtruck21 · June 24, 2003

do you drive a lot of short trips and idle a lot. Maybe some excessive carbon buildup could require injector or tb cleaning?

Shaners · June 24, 2003

I would agree with BigTruck, that you should run some top-end cleaner in your truck and see if that clears up the stumble... I think the off the shelf stuff that most people use is called "sea Foam".

greyghost03 · June 24, 2003

I used Sea Foam in my wife's past vehicle (94 Jeep Grand Cherokee) w/about 80,000 mi. It did make a diff. You might want to give it a shot. Just add a bottle to a full tank of gas.

96 Vortec · June 25, 2003

I can tell you what it isn't. I suffer from the same problem. I recently replaced the Throttle Position Sensor and the fuel pump to solve another problem. I really hoped it would take care of the cold hesitation, but alas, it did not.

I don't know how much fuel injector cleaner will help. I run it every couple of months and it hasn't done anything yet. I also drive 50 highway miles everyday, so I doubt my problem is short trip carbon buildup.

seadoons · June 25, 2003

Sea Foam, huh? I'll look into it. I drive 14 miles to work every day, but it is in rush hour traffic and it takes me 40 minutes to get there. Lots of idling. I have never been a big fan of fuel additives, but maybe ill try. It was especially embarassing when I was "racing" my sisters boyfriend at a stoplight. He has an '03 ford supercrew fx4 with the big v8. I gunned it, and she stuttered. Almost like the truck was saying "who, me? You want me to go?" I still beat him though...at least to the 45MPH mark. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give an update later.

melbertbloosfan · June 25, 2003

Hey, 'doons, keep us posted on your progress. My brother-in-law with a '99 4.8L has the exact same problem. He has around 50 thou on his. Changed the fuel filter and the plugs seem okay. He is at a loss too.

I'll relay the sea foam suggestion. Anyone had the codes read? I wonder if it is a computer-related problem? Anyway, keep us posted please....

bigtruck21 · June 26, 2003

I don't know how well the fuel injector cleaning that pours into the tank works, but I was talking about the kit from gm where you can clean your fuel injectors from the fuel rail. I'd guess if you have that many highway miles and no excessive idling for warmup, carbon shouldn't be the problem if you are using good gas.

seadoons · June 26, 2003

All I use for gas is Diamond Shamrock's regular grade. I feel that it is a good brand, and have used if for years in all the vehicles that I've had. I'm under an extended warranty, so if becomes a bigger problem i'll just take it in.