I hope someone can give me some advice. I have a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am with 121,000 miles. The past couple weeks as I accelerate and my rpm’s hit about 1500, the car lurches back and forth. The rpm needle goes up in down as the car lurches. If I accelerate faster (to about 60, 65) it goes away. The problem is getting worse by the day. Any ideas??
Are you sure that this is about RPM’s and not also about speed of the car. I.e., is it always somewhere in the 40-55mph range or so. Or even at very low speeds (lt 30mph) and 1500rpm?
What is the maintenance history of the car like? Have recommended maintenance items been consistently taken care of? E.g. when’s the last time you had things like plugs, wires, filters checked/replaced?
Is the check engine light on? If so, you need to get someone to read the codes (many large chain auto parts stores will do it free), and then post them back up here.
You have to differentiate the problem between engine and transmission. Does the surging happen in all gears? If you manually select first or second, does the surge occur? If you get no surging while in manual first or second, have a transmssion specialist scan the computer for transmission codes. If the surging still happens in first and second at 1500 rpm, have a mechanic who specializes in driveability problems diagnosis the problem.
Get back to us with the answer to the above questions and we can advise you further.
That doesnt sound like a transmission issue off the bat. I would let a drivability guy look at it first.
transman