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Surging rpm, idle and on freeway

7K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  elantra02gls 
#1 ·
All right, I have a '04 elantra and am going crazy over this problem that has started. When I'm driving, my car started to feel almost as though the tranny was slipping. But on further investigation, coasting off the freeway on in to a gas station, it was surging up to 2500 rpm (while in neutral and stopped) and back down again. This problem is intermitent. When I took it into the shop a couple weeks ago, they said they couldn't recreate the prob even after a 20mile road test. I picked up the car and it was fine, but it started up again. The drove the car around all day to recreate the prob so I could take it in but no luck. Any Ideas? Any help would be great.

PS The shop said there was a evap code in the memory... The last time this problem happened while on the freeway doing about 70, the rpms where jumping from 3000 to 4000 with no increase in speed. Thanks again
 
#2 ·
The engine is gaining rpm but you feel no diffrence in speed? Not even a small bit of acceleration? That has to be something in the trans/torque converter.
 
#3 ·
Do you have an auto or manual? I tried to read between the lines, but you talk about shifting into neutral, which would indicate stick, but you also say the engine changed speed without a change in vehicle speed.
 
#6 ·
Unfortunately it's an automatic... mainly my daily driver. Thanks for all the quick replies. This is just about the only place I have left for answers. It's driving me crazy. The first time it started was while I was taking my son home and I was going into a passing lane. I stepped on the gas and instead of kicking into passing it started hesitating and then I lost power all together. I stepped on the gas all the way and my rpms didn't go above 1000, and sputtered between 500 and 1000 rpm. I turned off the car for a minute or two, turned it back on and it drove fine. Later down the road it started sputtering (between 2000-2200rpm) around 60 mph. Then it just goes away and I drive around happy... grrrr. Thanks agian for all the help
 
#8 ·
you said an evap code is in memory, so maybe your evap purge solenoid may be going bad...a sign would be a P0441 error

If the solenoid is stuck open, which it likely is, evaporated gas may be causing your car to sputter, as the car is too cold/using more gas to accept and burn off the evaporated gas.
 
#9 ·
I have had the same exact problem with my 2002 gls with AT. The cause was a bad TPS or throttle positioning sensor. I believe it's located on the throttle body, and is fairly cheap to replace. If you do it yourself, be sure to reset the ECU by disconnecting the negative battery terminal for about 5 mins. Warranty should cover you though. Hope this helps, I know it's frustrating. :D
 
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