Hello, My question when driving my Z, I need to really nurse the clutch in first gear as it has no low end power, then it once moving, it sputters and backfires while driving. Also the SES light comes on after about 5 minutes of driving. Once I let off the pedal, the backfiring is quite loud.

Question is this a bad plug or plug wire?
Coil or Opti?

Thanks in advanced.

 

Have you scanned the SES light for a code?

 

That I havn't as this has just started .
I drove it recently for 10 miles and the SES didn;t come on at all. Power is still way down and sputters, backfires, so forth.

 

Will it rev cleanly and smoothly to redline in neutral?

 

Yes it revs fine. While driving it runs kinda rough below 2,000 RPM. I have to feather the clutch out to make sure it has power. Once above 2,000 it runs descent, can still hear some sputtering and backfiring. It doesn;t run well enough to use 6th gear though. Also notice the shifter shaking at times.

 

sounds like a burnt wire or fouled plug to me. does the car have aftermarket headers? if so its pretty likely you burnt a wire

 

burnt wire. The stutter under 2,000 RPM is a dead give away (in my experience) to a burnt plug wire. As it gets worse, the car might start almost 'bucking' until you get to 2,000 RPMs.

 

The lone pertinant mod is a Borla cat back. This makes the backfires that occur while it's driving fun since it sounds like I am being shot at from behind .

Thanks for the input. I was glad to hear it was a plug. I have owned this Z since 98 and in it's career it has had 7 Opti's