Hey all!

I was hoping you could shed some light on something...

I took my car out for a bath then ran some errands yesterday. It was the first time it had been run in 3 weeks. After the car wash, each time I started the car it would idle rough (the tach would jump up and down) and then stall. Sometimes I had to start the car 3 or 4 times. However, when driving (and stopped at a light) the idle was smooth and it did not stall.

Is this a syptom of the wash (water)? Bad gas? Something worse?

Thanks in advance!

 

Newbie to this forum here. I've come here to see if anyone else has had the same problem. I have '97 3.0 CL with 130K+ miles.

Sometimes, my car also barely and roughly idles (500 or so RPMs after start) and sometimes dies - been doing this for 20K miles or so now. However this rough start only happens after long drives and when the car is hot - this has probably happened to me 20 times now. This problem only happens after the engine has been warmed up and I re-try starting it 10-60 mins after driving. I just give it some gas and after 30 secs, car seems to run okay.

I took my car in to get all the TSBs fixed two weeks ago since I'd never had ANY done. Asked them to diagnose idle issue but they couldn't find anything obvious - they changed the ignition motor and some other ignition related items - said they were well worn out and could contribute to the bad start. 4 days later, idle problem reappeared. Then, last week, my starter died at 130K - no surprise there - it was getting old. So I had it towed and they replaced it at the dealer - I asked them to hook it up to the computer and see if they could see any startup issues/codes. Shop guys drove the car around a bit, got lunch, etc. trying to emulate problem with computer attached, but no codes or problems showed up.

Maybe problem was starter related, but hard to see why. Well, I drove car 700 miles over the weekend with no problems whatsoever - started up strong and quickly each time. No rough idle. I'll post if anything new pops up, but may have been starter related. Father-in-law is using the car for the next few weeks since he drives alot to test it out and to see if he can replicate problem. He restores cars and is very familiar with them.

Ideas: Could be throttle position sensor related but you have to replace whole throttle body to fix that - $600-800 - no thanks. Also, could be vapor lock/gas rail vaporization problem but there is currently no fix for that, if that is in fact the problem.

Cheers.

 

Did you wash the engine too?

 

A sticking idle air control valve is the likely cause. Especially after sitting for a while. Mine acted similarly after sitting for 6 days, but it cleared itself up after several minutes. Mine didn't stall, but the idle surged between 500 and 2000 RPMs. Quite upsetting! But a bad IAC valve seems to be a very common problem, and I want to hear about a procedure for cleaning it myself, since I'm out of warranty....
I'll start a new thread about it soon.

Tosh

 

its the idle control valve .
I had the same problem and got changed at the dealer

 

I believe you are referring to the IACV (Idle Air Control Valve). Scalbert mentioned that this could have been my problem when my car was almost stalling when almost to a complete stop. Of course when I mentioned it to the dealer, on my printout says "Customer states maybe a problem with Idle Air Control Valve" "order EGR valve" oh well, best of luck to ya.

 

My Car Just Won't Start. I Get In Turn The Key And It Just Turns Over. I Thought At First It Jumped Time But It Started. It Starting To Do It More Often. The Check Engine Light Hasn't Come On Yet. I Don't Know Whats Wrong With It?