Most of the time my 93 DX runs fine, but on occasion it will have some hesitation or "sputtering" when I give it gas when pulling out. Today what bothered me was a heard a backfire when this occured.

about 3000 miles ago it passed the Pennsylvania emissions test well under the limits. And about 800 miles ago I changed the fuel filter.

The timing belt was also changed about 3000 miles ago also. But if it were a timing problem occuring from the belt, i'd assume I would have noticed a difference right away.

Please Help!

Check your spark plugs :dunno:

Thanks, that was the next thing I was thinking of doing, I just don't have my toolbox with me right now.

Would poor plugs cause a backfire though?

poor plugs, bad dizzy cap and rotor... change them all.

It could cause the engine to misfire, sounds a lot like a backfire (not as loud). Not sure if it's cause a backfire exactly though. I just figured I'd throw out the plug thing because me and a friend have had a similar problem with our cars. It ran great for a year and then all of the sudden it started to sputter at idle and hesitated when I was driving. Eventually it started to misfire and ended up not starting at all (in my case anyways). But we both checked our plugs and they were absolutely toasted. Hopefully someone else will have some input for you on this problem, especially if it's not the plugs.

i say do a full tune up, hes already done the fuel filter, why not finish it off and replace everything?? its deff no hard and its cheap and cant hurt anything.

plugs were shot. I'm retarded.

What a difference.

When it happened to me, the last thing I thought it was were the plugs. My friend just mentioned that I should check them and that's how I found out. Glad to hear it's working now.

one month later and the car has been acting up again for the past week, although not as frequently. Now it is happening right after I start it when it has sat overnight.