Belch? **Diagnosed**

I was driving my '05 Turbo MT Baja yesterday and I kept almost stalling when coming off the clutch. I went on the highway and it acted sluggish as it had for a couple of weeks or so.

As I approached the shopping plaza, I pulled out of gear and coasted into the parking lot. We heard what sounded like a blast on a tuba. Deep sound, maybe 2-3 seconds long. We looked at each other, like what was that?

I went back into gear and parked. We went into the store for about an hour and came back out. I started up and almost stalled in reverse. Huh?

I drove home kind of nursing the clutch and parked for the night.

This morning, I was headed on a 200 mile round trip and my CEL came on about 100 yards away from home. I stopped and opened and closed the gas cap since I just filled up just before the tuba noise. The temperature dropped like a rock over night so the gas could have condensed and formed a weird bubble. Anyway, no luck.

I drove around the block back home and turned the car off. Did the gas cap again and tried again. No luck. Now I notice that my cruise light is flashing on the dash button where you turn it on.

I went down to our friend who has a station close to the house. I had to nurse the clutch all the way down in stop-and-go traffic. I parked on the back side, shut the car off and went inside.

About 15 minutes later, the mechanic asked me to drive to the other side of the building. I started up and stalled in reverse with a huge jerk. I restarted and the CEL was out and the cruise light was out.

He plugged in his scanner and it couldn't communicate with my car?! He jiggled things, unplugged it re-plugged it, nada. It won't talk back.

Here's the kicker.. I made my trip anyway, and the car was normal... responsive, quick, no hesitation... the sluggishness is gone. Huh?

He said he's seen cases where some cars have a fit and the computer gets confused... I'm really concerned that his scanner couldn't get any info at all. Yet the car runs perfect. What was that tuba noise? A turbo burp?

** A friend of mine came over with a scanner and seems the cold emissions runner valve was stuck closed (tuba noise). There are no codes at present. **