elusive1

hey guys...

basically,i have a weirdidle. the car idles higher than normal when it's in neutral; sometimesdipping back down to the normal idle and then surging back up again.it feelsodd when i'm in gear too...for instance, when i shift gears, itfeels like the car is overrevving in between shifts(like the throttle is stuck slightly open or something). and today when i firststarted thecar the idle was super high (~3k)for about 10-20 seconds.this allbegan right after i used some gunk engine cleaner on my engine... i was trying to clean off all this sticky anti-freeze that sprayed everywhere from when my radiator busted on me. how might that have caused something like this? any ideas on what to do?

iceman89gt

some of the cleaner may have greased up the maf sensor, or a number of other things. how exactly did you go about spraying this cleaner in the engine?

elusive1

i definitely had the MAF covered up with a plastic bag... same with other electrical components/connectors. i just waited until the engine cooled off, sprayed the cleaner on the dirtiest areas (heads, hoses, intake manifold, etc.), let it all soak for 5-10 minutes, then sprayed it off with a hose, and then started the car and let it run for 5-10 minutes -- exactly as the directions on the back of the cleaner bottle told me.

iceman89gt

did you remove the throttle cable or move the idle set screw by any chance or unplug the battery.

elusive1

none of the above. i disconnected the negative terminal yesterday to try and reset the ecm, thinking that might have helped. but i didn't touch any of those parts during the actual cleaning process.

iceman89gt

the computer will need about 10 miles driving time steady to relearn and sometimes more so if that hasent been done then make sure all your vaccum lines are ok. if you got any of this stuff in the IAC it may not have agreed with it. i would also clean it out with lectra clean.

settled4automatic

how long was the battery disconnected before you hooked it back up?? i had the same problem, and just unplugged my IAC, because it got really annoying to have to drag 1st gear at a stop light in order to keep my engine from idling at 3k rpm at a dead stop. from there, i assumed i had a bad IAC, and went to Autozone and bought one for about $55 --- I decided to reconnect the IAC on my car and wait for it to act up again before i put the new one on, and it hasn't acted up again since!! its been running fine for a week now.

after that story, i suggest unplugging your IAC and driving your car around for a day or two, then reconnect it and see what happens. your car won't idle well at all until it gets warmed up, so you'll have to give it some gas to keep it running, but once its warm it'll idle around 650-700rpm with the IAC unplugged.

^^ just suggestions from my experience, good luck!

elusive1

thanks guys.. i'm gonna try out a few of these suggestions tomorrow and i'll keep you posted.

elusive1

UPDATE: alright... so... cleaned out the iacv and it didn't help. i checked all of the connectors and they're moisture-free. doesn't look like there are any frayed wires anywhere or anything. and i alsosprayed WD-40 on the throttle linkage just to be safe.

to help clarify the problem: the idle starts off high at 3k at first start up. this lasts for 10-20 seconds and then drops. but it's only that high for the INITIAL start of the car (after it's been sitting for awhile). then the idle remains higher than usual, no surging, it's just a high idle.

anyone ever experienced this? any other suggestions?