When I start the car for the first time in the morning, dead cold it starts fine but immediatly after starting it drops down around 800 and runs really rough almost like a slight miss there for about two or three seconds and usually jumps back up where it's supposed to be for warm up speed. It started doing this mildly a few months back, but now it seems to be gradually taking longer to straighten itself out. If I tap the gas right away it stops doing it as well. What should I check for this? Maybe a sensor is having trouble? I'll try and get a video of it tommorow.

 

Id just spray some carb cleaner in the IACV and check the warm idle make sure its at the right rpm.

~Alex

 

+1

First make sure the throttle body butterflies comes to rest on the proper throttle stop and does not come to rest inside the throttle body by actually fouling on the sides of the TB because of a improperly adjusted throttle stop.

Simple to clean IACV man - 3 little philips screws will remove the whole servo motor from the IAC assembly and expose the shank with linear spiral and probably dirty valve tip - gently clean both and screw back in ................. enjoy the beer and stop tapping.

 

Yeah, It's probably due for a good cleaning. I'm going to seafoam it soon as well. Thanks guys.

 

It's probably the IACV, but it could also be bad contact in the throttle position sensor. THis is consistant with being able to tap the accelerator and clearing up the problem.

 

Well I unplugged the connector on the TPS, and had a look. It seemed okay but I blew it out to get any loose crap out of it and plugged it back in. The idle is way smooth now. I guess I didn't realize how rough it had been getting. The real test will be in the morning tommorow to see if it chills out on the wierd start up.

 

One more question about this. It seems to be coming loose still. Is it a bad idea to bend the tabs out slightly on the sensor to make it fit tighter? I'm not sure how fragile the sensor is?

 

Not following you here..............

You saying cleaning the TPS connector solved your idle fluctuations/inconsistencies on first cold start now?

and that your problem now is a sensor plug falling out?

 

No no, it's not falling out by any means, it's clipped on there and isn't going anywhere, the pins just aren't pressing up against each other inside the connector very well, ie intermittant problem. If I wiggle the connector around it goes back to normal. What I'm asking is can I just barely bend the tabs on the TPS so that they are fitting tighter in the connector with out breaking it?

 

you can play with the pins to ensure a better connection.
just don't play too much or they will breka

 

If your having rough idle issues at cold temperatures you need to be looking at your ECT sensor. Your ECT tells the PCM how much fuel to inject to allow higher rpm during warm up. But if your ECT tells the PCM your car is at 210F when its at 90F, then you get rough idle conditions, which clear up when you gas it because obviously you have more gasoline going into the engine. Loose connectors are to blame for some problems but ECT's on this car are very common to go out. Check your connections at the CPU-ECT connection (this is the two wire connector). lemme know what happens

 

A coolant sensor isn't rpm dependent, and thats what it sounds like your describing. Usually when its completely dead the idle will surge up and down. Mine did that and it was bad connection.

Jon- got any junkyards near you? Id grab a new tps and connector or 2. Solder them in and you'll be good...

~Alex

 

Yeah, I'm going to have to grab a new one, solder it and weatherproof the hell out of it. I'm pretty sure it's the TPS because like I had said before as soon as I messed around with it a bit, it cleared up.

 

ECT = Engine Coolant Temperature
CHTS = Coolant Head Temperature Sensor

 

I don't get it?

 

tapping the throttle to avoid the problem. I used to give it a quick 3k to stop mine from being goofy but even then it still was sometimes.