Hi all, I'm new here. I have a 98 accord with a 4cylinder with automatic trans. Last year I had a problem. When under heavy acceleration the car would stutter and not shift into the next gear. I checked the plugs and they were really worn. I replaced them and the problem was fixed. Two weeks ago it started doing the same thing again. Under heavy acceleration, trying to get onto the highway, it stutters when its time to shift and I have to let off the gas a little to let it shift up into the next gear. I have checked the plugs again, they were fine, gap looked good but I replaced them anyway. Then I pulled the distributor cap. The points were corroded a bit and so was the rotor. So I cleaned them up a bit with an emory board until I replaced them both today. It still does the stuttering. The only thing I haven't replaced are the plugs. I wanted to get onto a forum and get some other input before I go further. Thank you all in advance.
Jeremy

 

Another thing to check is insulation breakdown in the plug wires.

1 - Complete darkness with the engine cold (say 0400 morning ).
2 - Open hood, turn off all lights, start engine.
3 - Look for arcing (dull blue glow) around plug wires.
4 - IF you see em glow, buy new ones.

 

I had a similar problem with my truck. If I accelerated slowly it would do OK, but if I pushed the accelerator down too far, it would sputter really bad. The insulation on the wires was ok, but the connection on the spark plug was loose (cheap Autozone wires). I put the original wires back on, and it solved the problem. So check the connections for looseness too. I doubt that would have been seen in the darkness, because it was inside the spark plug boot. Good luck.