Possible problem with my civic

[Chops McGandhi]

Hi I drive a 97 Honda civic with an automatic transmission that I bought used.
I have this problem where I will be accelerating and then it reaches this point where it feels like it can't accelerate anymore. This usually lasts about a second or 2. It feels similar to the what the car would do if it was a stick shift and it reached the point where I needed to shift gears. Basically it feels like it's slow to change gears. And what will happen is i will be pressing on the gas and it won't go any faster and then suddenly it bursts forward.
Does that sound like normal civic behavior? Like i said I got it used, also I previously drove a ford ranger and a ford explorer and neither behaved like this. So I don't know if this is normal civic behavior or if there is something wrong with my car.

tl;dr automatic feels like it is slow to change gears

 

[LTC8K6]

Check the fluid level. Change the fluid and filter if it hasn't been done recently.

 

[T_K]

Current mileage?

It sounds like the transmission is slipping during gear changes.

 

[unokitty]

If you haven't changed the transmission fluid, I'd do that now.

There is a good chance that the problem will go away after the change.

Uno

 

[KIAman]

During that pause, does the engine spin to redline or does it stay constant while not continuing the acceleration? There is a difference.

 

[Chops McGandhi]

During that pause, does the engine spin to redline or does it stay constant while not continuing the acceleration? There is a difference.

Not sure I understand the question. By redline, do you mean the red part of the rpm gauge? If so, I have never seen it go past 4000rpm (no where near the red part)

And for those who asked: the car has about 121,000 miles on it. When I bought the car, it had 112,000 miles on it, if I remember correctly.

An additional detail: it seems to help if I release the gas then press it again.

Thanks for the replies. You've told me what I suspected but I wanted to try to get some other opinions since I'm not much of a car expert.

 

[Chops McGandhi]

If you haven't changed the transmission fluid, I'd do that now.

There is a good chance that the problem will go away after the change.

Uno

Yeah I'm not expecting the problem to magically go away. I was mostly wondering if that was normal civic behavior or an actual problem.
Like I said my previous car driving experiences where all truck, SUVs, so I didn't know if civics just behaved differently.

 

[Pandora's Box]

On a kind of unrelated point: If you bought it at 112K - I would check the timing belt, unless you know it was replaced recently.

 

[KIAman]

Not sure I understand the question. By redline, do you mean the red part of the rpm gauge? If so, I have never seen it go past 4000rpm (no where near the red part)

And for those who asked: the car has about 121,000 miles on it. When I bought the car, it had 112,000 miles on it, if I remember correctly.

An additional detail: it seems to help if I release the gas then press it again.

Thanks for the replies. You've told me what I suspected but I wanted to try to get some other opinions since I'm not much of a car expert.

What I meant to ask is during the pause in your acceleration, does your engine still spin up like it is still trying to accelerate or does your engine stay where it's at?