UPDATE: 6/24/04 - Don't know why but I put my car in neutral today leaving the parking garage at work and I decided to see if the engine would rev normally. When I stepped on the gas the engine wouldn't rev up and acted like its been when I'm driving so I don't think it's the transmission. Any other thoughts????

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I have a 96 SE, 4 cyl., auto with a few engine problems. Where to start

1. While driving at any speed the car will start slowing down and the rpms will go up. If I step on the gas it's like the engine is winding up, rpms will go up, and then finally will start to pick up speed again. I may or may not have to play with the accelerator to get it going again. There may or may not be bucking when this happens.

2. When accelerating from a stop the car acts like it has a stick shift. Looks like someone learning to drive a stick shift. Bucking. Have to step on the accelerator to get it to stop it and get moving. Also acceleration has been very slow from a stop. Like a pause for a few seconds before it will start picking up speed.

3. Checked out my spark plug wiring and where my Hayes manual shows the setup at the engine as 1- 2- 3- 4 and the distributor cap as 1- 2- 3- 4 my wiring on the cap is 2-1-3-4. Tried changing it and the engine won't start.

The car doesn't have cruise control. It does have air (doesn't matter if it's on or off). Now these problems DO NOT happen all the time. The weather can be hot or cold, raining or dry. They may happen not at all, once, or off and on a number of times while driving. Even with these problems I'm managing approx. 25 MPG. My 91 Probe used to get 30 MPG.

If you have had these problems and know how to fix them your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Er-As far as the car not starting goes,I would pull the negative battery cable to reset the computer. But Ihad the same problem with the bucking and everything, it was the tranny on its way out, it like yours wasn't weather-dependent.

If the engine runs smoothly, and still revs up, most likely its a transmission problem.

Yea, sounds like the tranny or clutch (yes, autos do have them)... take it to a mechanic and have it checked out, but it sounds like it's either a worn control arm, or the clutch is going out...