Car sluggish/hesitating during hard acceleration...

The filter in on the firewall near the battery. Follow the line back from the fuel rail. Be certain to support the filter with a wrench ( the filter has wrench flats)and turn the fitting with a line wrench. See if you have Sunoco gas in your area. Most of it is 10% ethanol and will soak up water on it's own without needing to put in an additive. Go to

and read the tech bulletin on Mitsu. The plug wells need to be maintained free of oil, mositure and crud. Lurk here for more info:

Sounds like a classic ignition problem under load. You found one bad wire for sure. The others are probably not much better. Do them next.

Thank you both for the info. After changing the plugs, I still had the stutter at hard acceleration. Changed the wires, cylinder 1 was the only one with the arcing hole, and no more stutter. Now, I just have to work on the thumping noise on the right front to middle side during highway acceleration. I do notice a thumping sound say when I hit a bump on the right front side, guess I'll just have to get under there and have a look.

Hey, on a side-note. Does anyone else have a problem with their windshield washer fluid freezing up. I have used different brands of "No-freeze fluid" with no luck. I think that having the fill resevoir in the back away from the engine heat could be a design flaw. I poured some rubbing alcohol in, so we'll see when the bitter cold hits NH again.

I have the same problem. It is my understanding that it is the spray nozzles that freeze up do to the alcohol evaporating out of the solution. Adding a bit more alcohol should be an interesting experiment. Please post the results when you observe them. FWIW YMMV