What's causing my Mazda MX-5 to shudder under acceleration?

I have just bought a 2008 Mazda MX-5 2.0 Sport RC from a franchised dealer, the car was serviced in April by the dealer and has 45,000 on the clock. After running it for a few days, and filling the tank with Shell V-Power, I have noticed occasional loss of power when accelerating hard, causing the car to judder and then it regains power as the revs increase. This happens when the engine is warm and only occasionally through the day. Do you have any suggestions as to what this could be and how do you recommend I proceed?

Asked on 7 September 2013 by MO, Crosby

Answered by Honest John

If dealer diagnostics cannot pinpoint this, get it onto a chassis dynamometer to find out exactly where in the rev range this is occurring. If nothing comes up, it might be something silly like a bad earth to the fuel tank sender pump or the fuel tank sender pump relay. But all diagnostics will show is a temporary reduction in fuel supply.

Tags: loss of power electrical faults engine problem

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