Hey all,

I'd appreciate your help in putting together a list of things for the dealer service dept. to check when I take it in for the tranny recall and 75 k maintenace.

Here's the deal:

The car has been shipped across country twice in the past year and on the west coast it mainly sat--for almost 9 months. It was serviced before I left (had an oil change and throttle body cleaned) but was not serviced again until I got back here (2 months ago).

About 6 months ago, I had trouble with it stalling (right after starting) and a can of fuel injector cleaner seemed to do the trick.

About 2 months ago, I had the oil changed as I could tell the car was really struggling (didn't have the normal get up and go and I was getting some sort of metallic hum from the engine when the AC would kick on--in addition to the labored growl that is normal) and it was overdue for an oil change anyhow. This helped things a little--I've only heard that metallic hum with the AC pump kicking on, 1x since.

I recently replaced the PCV valve which seemed to help things--the existing valve did not rattle. The idle seemed to be quieter or less labored.

I went to drive her to work today (car sat in the garage all of last week) and the idle was up and down (but never stalled) for the first 15 or so minutes but again it sounds labored--and I don't want to risk hurting the engine.

Its something about when the car sits I think...

Anyhow, I'm trying to put together a list of possible things that could be causing this and would like your help answerign this question:

If you're sitting at a red light (car in drive, foot on brake) and you can hear that the car is not idling smoothly and seems to be laboring at idle--and this is magnified when the AC pump kicks on.

dirty tranny fluid? Oil residue? Bad oil fliter? AC pump? Air filter? Plugs?
Other?

Thanks for your help!

 

seem normal to me.