'94 Chugs going uphill

[CeeCee]

My '94 has started to chugga chugga when I am driving up a winding hill and need to let off the excelerator and then accelerate again. When I do, it chugga chuggas until I come to some kind of steady speed again. It has also started to have little backfires sometimes as well. It runs fine on flat grades. THis has 100,000+ miles on it. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[digimon]

When was the last time you tuned it up? Is this Carvan a 4 cylinder? This sounds like it may have something to do with the spark, like one of the following; bad plug wires or fouled spark plug. Sometime bad gas will do this. If you only run 87 octane in your van, run a tank 93 every so often just to clean it out. A good turn up would probably cure this with some new plug wires they don't last for ever. Good luck. RIde On, digimon

[Klaue]

This sounds exactly like what mine is doing now right now. I took it into the dealer yesterday and they ran their computers on it and said it is bad Sparkplugs and one bad Sparkplug wire. I didn't want to pay $220 for them to replace them so I went out and bought Bosch Wires and Champion Plugs for a total of $40 bucks. Will be putting them in this weekend.

Just wondering, is your "Backfire" sound right in front of the driver and do you feel it in the accelerater pedal?

[digimon]

Put them on yourself is a money saving thing to do. It's really very easy. Just one note, take off and replace one at a time so as not to confuse the order. May not be a bad idea to replace the distributor cap and rotor as long as your doing it sometimes the cap gets cracked. A cracked cap may also cause your car to run ruff. Just do it the same way move one wire at a time. And since you will have to take off the air cleaner to do the back plugs why not replace it too, if it needs it. A good clean air cleaner will better for your gas milage. Cheak all your fluids and battery. Now you've just done a $350.00 tune up for about $45.00. It only took you about an hour. Good Luck! Ride On, digimon

[gforster]

I'm betting fuel pump... #1 symptom
Geoff

[Klaue]

I'm glad to say the dealer mechanic was right. New wires and plugs and my 92 Caravan is back on it's feet. No more power problems, and no more popping. I hope yours turns out well CeeCee.