I have a ?01 Forrester (automatic) that is having some issues. When taking off from a stop, the car hesitates and chokes it way to finally going. Sometimes, it will not go past 2,000 rpm even if the gas pedal is pressed down all the way, and then all of a sudden it will go. Periodically, there is a knock and a low idle with dimming headlights.
She is at about 60.4k miles, just had the 60k workup and a new knock sensor installed. This hesitation problem was happening before, but not as much or as bad. It is now happening all of the time. Although, the hesitation when accelerating (after getting started) can be gotten around by manually shifting through gears, but it still has issues with actually starting off.
My first thought was that it was a transmission issue, but I am now leaning towards a computer malfunction. Any ideas on what it could before I take it to the shop?.