earossi

Well, I've put about 3000 miles on the "new" 05 545, and really like the car. There have been a number of small issues that I found during the shakedown time that have now been fixed; however, there are still two items that are not fixed. For those, I am asking that the forum provide advice.

The first is what I'll call "engine hesitation". The highlite of this car is the engine. It's truly a wonderful thing. This is clearly the fastest sedan I have ever owned. Aside from being Corvette fast, the car gets 26 mpg on the road, starts flawlessly, and seems boundless in the amount of torque she puts out. However, there is one small nagging issue that percists. The car idles beautifully, but there is a slight hesitation as I feed her throttle. It's very slight.....feels just like turbo lag (even though the car is not a turbo!). The engine doesn't stumble, but there is no response to throttle input for about the first touch of the pedal. And, then there is a sudden increase in engine speed. From that point on, the engine behaves beautifully and the tranny shifts nicely. I squawked this to the dealer, but he was apparently unable to cure it. I got the usual "we could not duplicate" your issue when our mechanic drove the car. The issue is aggravating since it prevents nice soft acceleration from a stop.

When you bring the car to a stop, the engine returns nicely to idle.....no stumble.....no vibration....she just comes down to an idle of about 600 rpm and stays there until I hit the accelerator.

Has anyone experienced these symptoms before and then been able to figure out the cause? Is it possible that something such as a plugged EGR or a dirty throttle valve body....could cause this? The car has only 41K miles on the clock. It's really annoying.....at least to me. Suggestions?

The second item is a "clunking" in the steering column as the wheel pivots down into position when you turn the key in the ignition. At first I thought that it sounded like an exhaust pipe rattle. It occurred every time I started the engine and then shut off the engine. I finally figured out that it was not the exhaust. I have found that if I turn the key in the ignition and allow the wheel to pivot down into position (before starting the engine), that the sound is related entirely to the pivoting of the steering mechanism. Sounds like a knuckle joint popping. Other than the unusual noise, the steering wheel system seems to work perfectly. Anyone had this issue? If so, what had to be done to fix the issue? And, was it covered under the OEM warranty?

Brit_in_NJ

Do a search for "Throttle Lag" and "Sprint Booster" that should give you plenty of insight into the first problem. As for the second problem a search for "clunking steering column" also returned some results.

vlad_b

as for hesitation : try 25 second transmission reset (do the search). I don't think it's a mechanical problem.

as for steering coulumn: see if it worsens then it might be steering coulumn motor that moves it up and down - i had to replace mine due to the same noise it produced

Krozi

I had the steering knock with the pivot and also the steering knock when cornering. As far as I know, those 2 are related because the delaer replaced my steering column and that fixed both problems.