Car surges while lightly stepping on gas. No surging at idle or at higher RPMs. v6 2002 Toyota Camry 160k.

When I am lightly stepping on the gas, driving slow in a parking lot or maintaining highway speeds, my car surges. It is most noticeable at low speeds since the change in RPM causes a drastic change in speed. The car really lurches around. While traveling at highway speeds, the car will just feel a bit bumpy and shaky until I adjust my speed then its smooth.

This does not happen on cold mornings while my car is revving higher to warm the engine up, only once my car has warmed up, and I am in a situation where I am lightly stepping on the gas peddle.

I have had this problem for years. I just have a habit of driving in a way that avoids this surging. If I am in a parking lot, I just step on the gas and get up to a good speed then let off. If I am at highway speeds I just increase my speed by a few MPH and the problem goes away.

My car does not surge at idle nor does it surge while accelerating. I have no warning lights. I don't have an OBD so I am not sure of the diagnostic data while the car is surging.

I have cleaned the maf and used fuel injector cleaner. Both of these things combined seem to lesson the problem temporarily but after less than a thousand miles or so the problem is back.

I had a mechanic look at this problem a while back but they could not reproduce the issue (it was a cold winter morning so unless they drove the car for an hour it would make sense that they did not experience this problem).

I don't want to spend tons on money on this old car as I am thinking of selling it and getting a newer car, but prices are so bad right now I want to drive this car as long as I can.

I would think it is the MAF that needs to be replaced by others say surging at idle means the MAF is bad and I don't have that problem. Could it be needing a new fuel pump? However since I have had this problem for 5 years now so I would have expected it to fail by now. But maybe it is failing just Toyotas just keep on limping along I guess.

The only reason I am thinking about this now is because I want to make this car run like new or buy a newer car that runs better. Given the car market is insane getting this car to run like new would be much cheaper.