'97 Outback misfire/hesitation?

This problem is hard to describe, but when just cruising down the road at
speed the car will sometimes hesitate for an instant and then pick up again.
Since the CEL never comes on I find it hard to believe it's a misfire, and
wonder whether it might be the tranny searching for a lower gear for an
instant. The car is an automatic. Once it did hesitate for an instant when
starting out from a light.

My neighbor has the same car, and when I told her the story she said hers
does the same thing. Meanwhile both cars continue to run with no other
symptoms or warning lights coming on. I don't know about her, but I tend to
cruise at about 75mph to 80.

Any ideas as to what's going on here?

Thanks

Sheldon

You might check out this topic:


http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.subaru/browse_thread/thread/f...f323ed7


I've driven ~360 miles since putting that stuff in, I guess I notice it
a little less, but so far it's hard to tell if that's luck or the
cleaner.

Sheldon wrote:
> This problem is hard to describe, but when just cruising down the road at
> speed the car will sometimes hesitate for an instant and then pick up again.
> Since the CEL never comes on I find it hard to believe it's a misfire, and
> wonder whether it might be the tranny searching for a lower gear for an
> instant. The car is an automatic. Once it did hesitate for an instant when
> starting out from a light.
>
> My neighbor has the same car, and when I told her the story she said hers
> does the same thing. Meanwhile both cars continue to run with no other
> symptoms or warning lights coming on. I don't know about her, but I tend to
> cruise at about 75mph to 80.
>
> Any ideas as to what's going on here?
>
> Thanks
>
> Sheldon