93 Villager erratic running

[keshavas]

Can the original poster for this thread follow-up with his/her findings?

This problem appears similar to the one in thread 93'villager runs like garbage, so I posted there as well.

I too have a 1993 Villager with 135K miles, and it has been behaving much like the poster described.

Four mechanics including the dealer couldn't diagnose the problem because the computer isn't producing an error code. It has new spark plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor, and throttle body cleaning. I thought the car performed well after the throttle body cleaning, but the symptoms returned a few days later. A new engine computer was tried but showed no difference.

The symptoms are:
-hard shifting in the low gears when starting from a stop
-intermittent lack of power with hard shifting (feels like the car is struggling to accelerate)
-At 70 mph cannot hold speed in overdrive gear...slowly drifts down....then when accelerator is further depressed, the transmission shifts into 3rd (sometimes 2nd), and the car accelerates like a rocket until the accelerator is eased up, which causes it to shift into overdrive and the speed to slowly drift down again. This hysteresis makes the cruise control useless and the ride very uncomfortable with accelerations and decelerations.
-At 70 mph being cautious and gentle when pressing the accelerator often lets me avoid the above behavior as I can "feel" it coming. Often a very, very slow and gradual pressing of the accelerator allows something in the engine to "catch-up" with the accelerator position and the car acceerates in overdrive and the engine appears to have normal power.
-At 70 mph, the accelerator seems to have a big dead spot.
-When idling, the engine misses intermittently and less when warmed up.
-When accelerating, the engine misses intermittently immediately after depressing the accelerator but not when accelerating.

[cunokyle]

We ended up having the timing belt snap. I recommend you take it in and have a shop replace the timing belt and adjust the timing.

[greg123]

Bad Fuel Injector Replacement Cured Mine. Have A Diagnostic Done . It Kept Me From Being A Parts Changer. Also Cured The Problem Right A Way.