anyone elses car ever just go retarded.

[lucas]

so ive been having an idle problem that i thought was electrical, so i bought a new battery and had the alternator checked. problem went away for a few days and then came back.

Was the worst ive ever seen it tonight, I pull up to a stop sign push in clutch step on brake, radio, headlights are on. HORRIBLE oscillating idle almost stalling, and i can see the lights dim everytime it oscillates. Im totally stumped a little pissed off and kinda burned out on trying to fix this....


Any suggestions?

[kimokalihi]

Running on 3 cylinders? Check plug wires.

[lucas]

plug wires are all good, still goes like stink at WOT. maybe i should just hit the motor with a hammer a few times.

[ericem]

Do you have a revtronix chip lol.

[soobrdad02]

THREE CYLINDERS!!! You lucky sonofa---!!!! My wagon is apparently only running on two! I've been dealing with the same sort of stalling issue, but only noticed the electrical "dimming" when the car bogged down enough to die (on more than one occasion), so I just figured it to be a case of the engine slowing down, hence the belt slowing down and the alternator slowing down because of it. I've been told several times that it's a vacuum leak, found the code for an IACV, and it still runs like crap! today, I went to start it up and damned if it wasn't running on the #'s 3 and 4 cylinders ONLY!!! Good luck with it, you might just skip the hammer and go straight to dynamite though...

[lucas]

3 cylinders I dont know about that, the engine doesn't sound all jillapy like it's missing at all but idk maybe I'll check the spark plugs I guess. What else could it be? Any old smart guys wanna chime in

[Rubasu]

change the ecu it fixed mine a while back

[lucas]

other than another turbo computer, theres nothing that'll i can substitute it with right?

[kimokalihi]

Correct. I doubt it's the ECU.

[Bheinen74]

change the ecu it fixed mine a while back

you could have just cleared the ecu to reset it. Really, they rarely ever fail. The one you put in would be the same if you would have just disconnected the battery overnight.

[lucas]

ya im not planning on changing the ECU ive never seen one fail. its seems more and more like some kind of load issue on the electrical system doesnt really do it if the lights radio and im not stepping on the brake, so idk its weird, maybe a sensor?