thing were moving along fine with the engine...

Well, here's the new issue with my ZX.

Runs fine at high speeds (3-5th gear); the problem starts when I get stuck in traffic, stop-and-go..stop-and-go, the car looses power power, engine shakes, and even when I pump the gas pedal...nothing. I end up shutting the engine and starts back up with no problem - at times I may have to step on gas once or twice.

I don't know where to start troubleshooting this one, so does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Start w/ the basics... timing, efi connections (especially the AFM), check your plugs to make sure they are all uniform...

 

Yeah, I've checked the most obvious things.

However, what about the AFM? How would this affect my issue, when I'm on a stop-and-go (heavy traffic) situation?

Timing, I fixed the issue I had posted here before and I'm sure that's not the problem.

 

the AFM is what tells your computer how much air is going into the engine. with out a proper connection the car will run but it will have major power loss and it will shake and miss fire. i spent a whole day trying to figure out what i did to my car to make it do that and eventually remembered that i took my AFM out and cleaned it. turned out that i forgot to plug it back in DOH!

 

What are your temps like? In a static condition (traffic) you might be overheating slightly or heatsoaking the intake, causing some driveability issues. Do you have a working injector cooling fan? Maybe something else, but this is one possibility.

 

when you turn it off, do you turn it back on right away? If it runs right after just off and on, these cars have mechanical fans so it would still be hot and should still do the same thing. my $.02