2 irritating issues, Help please!

[W ockilla]

IDLE

When the car is cold, before it has heated up the car runs fine w/o any problems with idle, however once I get to operating temperature the idle drops from 1200ish to 750ish and when stopped the car.......sort of....vibrates, or shakes if you will, not violently, just enough to be irritating and I noticed that my rpm needle shakes too. I have had the following replaced, PCV valve, IAC valve, distributor cap, and spark plugs as well as a new air filter, still having the issue. **Side note** I'm only getting about 225 miles to a full tank of gas, this normal on a car this old? It's an auto and I am NOT a speed demon.

TEMP GAUGE

So when it's warm out and summer time the temp gauge reads normally and has no problem coming up to operating temperature and staying there, however when it is cold outside (40ish degress or less) the temp needle stays on cold, like ALL the way down, when I am at idle for about 5-10 mins it comes up normally, after driving 2-3 mins it drops right back down to bottm. Only thing I have had done here is replaced the radiator since it had a crack in it with a new aluminum core one. Have also noticed and this may be normal, but when I'm driving the heat when I have it on blows hotter and when stopped it gets noticeable colder, this normal? Oh also, after the car is turned off the fan turns on, on the radiator and runs about 5-10 mins.

 

[thenoxus1]

Not sure about the idle but to the heating, yes. When you drive, the car is running harder, therefore putting out more heat, meaning more hot air to suck in for you, when it's idling or at lower rpms, its not pushing as much, therefore it won't be as cold. In colder weather your fans may not ever kick on and if being driven at reasonable speeds the needle may life not far from the left at all.

 

[leftyfork]

Remove your intake manifold and clean the intake runners just before your injectors. The symptom you describe is classic sludge in the intake system. Once warmed up, the high idle goes down, and your intake velocity is not high enough to compensate for the poor airflow past your injectors. You can try to find a snake like brush or pipe cleaner type device to probe down there, (take your throttle body off, and do NOT adjust the screw with the lock nut), and maybe even clean it, but your best bet is to take the time to remove the intake and clean it like new. Your transmission will thank you for making your car run right. Stop spending money on parts until you clean this intake problem up.

 

[missboss0708]

Deff intake problemss ^^^^^^^^^^

 

[W ockilla]

Remove your intake manifold and clean the intake runners just before your injectors. The symptom you describe is classic sludge in the intake system. Once warmed up, the high idle goes down, and your intake velocity is not high enough to compensate for the poor airflow past your injectors. You can try to find a snake like brush or pipe cleaner type device to probe down there, (take your throttle body off, and do NOT adjust the screw with the lock nut), and maybe even clean it, but your best bet is to take the time to remove the intake and clean it like new. Your transmission will thank you for making your car run right. Stop spending money on parts until you clean this intake problem up.

Thanks, I will definitely try this, does anyone know where I can find a DIY for this with my car? I'm not exactly stupid when it comes to cars and have done plenty of work on them before but I'm not a guru either.

 

[leftyfork]

There are 4 12mm head bolts holding a metal bracket to the engine and the intake. There is one 10mm bolt holding your IAC valve wire. These bolts are seen and removed from below. You can remove 2 of the intake nuts from below as well (12MM). Up top you have to remove the throttle body, the vacuum lines and the steel pipe assembly (2 10mm bolts) remove the fuel line on the fuel rail, Unplug your injector resistors and the other two connections (driver's side firewall, 3 plugs), then remove the entire fuel rail and injectors with the harness. (difficult). Disconnect the fuel return line. Remove the EGR valve. disconnect the cooling lines beneath the throttle body, that are attached to the intake. Remove the throttle cable assembly. Remove the remaining 12mm nuts, there are 10 total, I believe.
Your PCV valve connection will probably get destroyed once you get the intake off. Heat the broken hose on the box at the back of the engine with a torch to get it off, and replace that hose with some 3/8 hose and use an adapter to 1/2 inch hose for your new connection.
Make and take you time, and you will succeed. Using appropriate socket extensions, you can get the nuts off the bottom passenger side. Tip, when re-installing these, put masking tape in your socket to hold the nut while you blindly install the nut. (you will do this with the two passenger bottom nuts on the intake)
Take pictures and put nuts and bolts back on where you took things off so you don't mix them up.
When you reattach your cooling hoses, make sure the ends are not punctured. You likely have to pry at the larger one. You can cut the one larger hose back about 1 inch without having to replace it.
Rock on.