So a little background info.

I bought this car (2004 MT) 2 years ago and have always had hesitation and (most of the time) misfires with the CEL's around 7-8k rpms. 2 years ago it had 60,000 miles. At this moment I have 103k miles now.

I dont try to go over 3000 miles between oil changes but I've gone up to 4000 a few times lol. One of my first mods (since I live here in south FL) was to bypass the coolant line from the throttle body
at 65000, I had the dealership replace the alternator from warranty because the alternator wasn't holding its output. Not more then a 1000miles later I bought new oxygen sensors to alleviate a CEL I got for a slow rear sensor.

at 70000 miles I changed out the wires to Magnecors 8.5mm + new coils + spark plugs. Not sure if related but I'll say it anyways just incase, and about 4000 miles later I replaced a slipping clutch with Exedys stage 1 clutch. This made the car run a hell of alot better but still hesitation and misfires at higher rpms.

So with my minor knowledge in cars I assumed the car was running lean around that area being that the fuel pump motor might be old and worn. Changed that out and now I have a little more accelerator response : ). But no cure. 85000 miles.
Around this time I began getting a CEL for a stuck ssv valve, my fault for not redlining it everyday. So I seafoamed the engine through the vacuum ports by the windshield washer reservoir, through the gas tank and drove it hard for a week after that. For a little while the CEL didnt come on and then it did, so I repeated with a seafoam cleaning a week later. This was around 87000 miles - 90000.

No CEL about a ssv shutter valve since. But still no click. At 1st gear it just goes all the way to the limiter no problem. 2nd gear the same. but in 3rd most of the time it quickly hesitates for half a second and goes to the rev. In 4th it always hesitates and usually misfires too during this climb. 5th is just as bad if anything even worse.

Also thought the cat might've been clogged. Unclogged primordial style and removed all the screen so that the cat will flow freely. 92000 miles. No cure.

Does anybody think that the ssv might still be stuck and no longer throwing a CEL for any apparent reason?

I'm not exactly sure where to continue from here and I'd really like someones opinion, experience, idea or insight. Searching is a absolute waste of my time most of the time on this subject and I'd really like to try to get this issue solved.


Help?

 

Usually a lack of airflow (either from the intake or exhaust side) will inhibit the car from reaching a high rpm. The hesitation could be do to it being "sticky" when opening.

You'll get a CEL on the days you drive in the upper RPM range; and it'll go away if you granny drive it for a few key on/off cycles.

I'd say clean that sucker up and see what happens.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-remove-ssv-beta-teaser-video-184663/

 

Sweet thanks, I'll hold this off til my next day off. Seems like I really gotta get in there for this little clean up.

I'll post an update and some pictures of the whole thing when Im done