my car has been great for the first half of the year but then I moved down to Nashville and landed a delivery driving job. stopping and going, driving full tanks of gas in 100% city driving. horrible ****

So recently my car has been acting up.

The first problem I'm having is starting my max on a cold start and there is clearly a problem. The car fires up but almost 'coughs' the car rev's to 1100 rpm immediately as the car is turned but then 'coughs' and the rpm dips around 450-500 rpm. today i started my car and it starts fine but jumped to 400-350 and took a ****. i can apply gas / put the car into drive right after i start the car and the car does not die but starting the car cold and doing nothing sometimes merits the car to die. When sitting at stop signs/stoplights as soon as i get out driving the car still idles low around 550 to 600rpm (but does NOT want to die) The car does not pull forward off a stop sign without touching the gas... previously i have always known my car to pull forward without touching the gas pedal.. the previous idle rpm has been 750 to 800. -- Things to consider possibly. I have a MEVI that I don't believe is currently working properly (IE when RPMs reach past 5300 nothings moves from the actuator, but the RPM switch lights up properly and is wired to my battery properly).. and today I just changed my cone air filter (the previous filter was very very dirty) - The mevi has not worked properly for months i believe but the cone filter was the step that i made where i first started noticing this problem.

My second problem - driving home my brake light and battery light both flicked on at the same time.. I know I dont have a brake light out or that I am low in brake fluid. Shortly following my check engine light flipped on.. I got home and turned off my car and then turned on the battery and the check engine was not on.. so I couldn't test what the Pcode was reading. My battery light and my brake light remained on. I have a optima yellowtop that I've had for maybe 5 years now.. never been a problematic battery but has seen its fair share of being drained dry. The alternator on the other hand is one thing I'm unsure of... I can't remember if i have ever changed or replaced the alternator. (what would be some tell tale signs that my alternator is failing? I dont have multimeter tools.)

Problem three

This has always been an issue i have had but have ignored it as it is simply an annoyance.. but i would like to address it now to see if you guys have any suggestions.

Sometimes i get in my car and i put the key in and turn and nothing happens. the battery comes on all the lights are on in the dash but not even a spark. So to remedy this problem what i've always done is put my foot on the brake... grab the shifter and shift it to drive and then back to park again. Take my foot off the brake pedal and turn the key and the car fires up like a charm.. Why in the hell does this happen?

thanks for any help and i'm sorry if some of it doesn't make sense. i'm tryin'

 

sounds to me like maybe park neutral switch for you 3rd problem, id definately say bring your car to have the alt checked at advanceautoparts or autozone

 

thank you, yeah do they do that service for free?

 

yea they can test your alt and battery for free

 

check bat, alternator. Check ignition switch, and park nuetral switch. Clean TB, and MAF per how tos.