accord surging/jerking undriveable...urgent help needed!!

[elusive84]

ok i will try to give you guys the symptoms and describe the situation best i can and hopefully you guys can give me your insight. car is 90 exr stickshift

symptoms:
-car idles fine. but perhaps a little low at 6-700 rpm
-car surges/jerks HARD while in gear....any gear. starts happening about 5-10 mintues after startup and becomes undriveable(doesnt move without jerking/surging) the part that puzzles me is once it goes undriveable if i restart the car real quickly the problem will go away for another 5 minutes or so but feels like its about to happen/could happen(by that i mean car feels different and laggy). this only happens when its in gear..if i put it into neutral and hold any rpm it does that no problem. so this is what made me thing it could be my tranny but if it was that then why does it fix temporarily after restart?
-surges and jerks so much that you can even hear the tires slightly squeal from the jerks/surges...definately cant be good for the car.

the cars fuel pump was replaced 2 or so months ago so it cant be that. i also changed the spark plugs and fuel filter yesterday because i though it was most likely a clogged fuel filter at first but that didn't fix the problem. air filter is also good....

i've also replaced the o2 sensor because i was getting a code 1...replaced with the bosch direct plug o2 sensor. you guys think it could be the bosch o2 sensor causing my car to act like this??? i have gotten a couple code 41's(o2 sensor heater circuit) in the morning on initial startup but that goes away once the car is restarted. i don't believe the code 41 is connected to my issue at hand because wouldn't the light come on during the actual jerk/surges/undriveability . my spark plugs i replaced also had a carbon coat on them indicating my car was running lean(i think?)...but maybe that was because of the bad o2 sensor i replaced.. i'm puzzled by this and not to mention frustrated..

i hope its nothing major, please help me!!

[jeffcoslacker]

The way the problem acts as you describe seems to indicate that the control feedback system is the culprit (PCM, sensor, switch), because until the car begins to warm up, it is running open loop(minimal computer control), and when you shut down and restart, you are probably clearing the glitch, momentarily.

If you had black sooted plugs, that would indicate overly rich (too much fuel) but it's rare for a rich condition to cause symptoms like you have. Sooty black exhaust and rough idle would be what you'd see.

Try this: Disconnect the o2 sensor and drive, see what happens. Doing so will keep it in open loop operation, so if the problem disappears, we know for sure it is feedback control and not mechanical.

Let me know what happens.

[jeffcoslacker]

The way the problem acts as you describe seems to indicate that the control feedback system is the culprit (PCM, sensor, switch), because until the car begins to warm up, it is running open loop(minimal computer control), and when you shut down and restart, you are probably clearing the glitch, momentarily.

If you had black sooted plugs, that would indicate overly rich (too much fuel) but it's rare for a rich condition to cause symptoms like you have. Sooty black exhaust and rough idle would be what you'd see.

Try this: Disconnect the o2 sensor and drive, see what happens. Doing so will keep it in open loop operation, so if the problem disappears, we know for sure it is feedback control and not mechanical.

Let me know what happens.

[elusive84]

Originally Posted by jeffcoslacker

The way the problem acts as you describe seems to indicate that the control feedback system is the culprit (PCM, sensor, switch), because until the car begins to warm up, it is running open loop(minimal computer control), and when you shut down and restart, you are probably clearing the glitch, momentarily.

If you had black sooted plugs, that would indicate overly rich (too much fuel) but it's rare for a rich condition to cause symptoms like you have. Sooty black exhaust and rough idle would be what you'd see.

Try this: Disconnect the o2 sensor and drive, see what happens. Doing so will keep it in open loop operation, so if the problem disappears, we know for sure it is feedback control and not mechanical.

Let me know what happens.

ok i think i did pretty much what you said but instead of removing the o2 sensor to make it go into open loop mode i disconnected the tps sensor..it went something like this:

-started car let it warm up. got a CEL 41(o2 sensor heater circuit which is unrelated as far as i can tell) after approx 2 minutes.. so i restarted and it went away.
-drove for approx. 10 mintues or so mintues until the car started jerking/surging/undriveable
-pulled over turned car off popped open hood and disconnected TPS sensor
-turned car on CEL came on for the TPS and i drove for approx another 10 or so mintues before it started happening again...af first w/o the TPS it felt alot more smoother and like it wasn't gonna happen again.
-so i'm on a busy road now with car unable to operate..i look like an a-hole in the process...
-so i restart once again and the car starts working noramlly and i goet home the couple blocks uneventful.

what should i do next??