ConnertheCat
07-19-2008, 10:32 AM
Hey guys, I have a 2000 LGT and an issue that started late april has continued to plague me... Every now and then (usually a week or so apart, but it can be sooner) the car will have a real rough time at idle. It's always fine the moment you turn the car on, but by the time I hit my first or second intersection (1/8th of a mile or so, around 2-3 minutes) the car will get a really rough idle to it when I'm stopped (the whole car will shake). As this happens, the car dips down below the usual 750 RPM into the 500 range. Sometimes it even sinks below that to 250 and then stalls (happened three times now I think). Sometimes I can recover by letting the car torque crawl, it helps the engine out a bit. Almost every time the car is fine once it's gotten about 10-15 minutes of driving in, but one time the issue did persist up to thirty minutes after I had started the car.
The thing is, it only happens when your stopped. When you're moving more then 5 MPH you'd never know there was a problem with the car. Also, my CEL came on for the third time now too - I'm not sure yet (haven't run the code THIS time) but the last two have been fuel trim issues. Both times I throw a thing of dry gas in the tank and the CEL goes away about an hour later. I'm pretty sure they are related, but not 100% sure.
I've spoken with a mechanically inclined friend of mine, he thinks it could be a leak in a vacuum hose - I have to get the timing belt replaced so I figured I'd just have the hoses done then. However, if anyone has any other possible ideas what could be causing this phantom problem that would be pretty cool.
Also, I did notice last weekend (during a 850 mile road trip in which the car never had the idling issue) that my temp gauge went up to 75%, then about 10 minutes later was back down to 50%. It was the first time I'd seen it that high, but the car was full of people and stuff, and we were going uphill and had the A/C on so I'm thinking that was just because the car had a lot of strain on it... I don't think it's related. Since then the temp has always been stuck at 50%.
Anyhow, any thoughts would be very welcome - thanks! :)
The thing is, it only happens when your stopped. When you're moving more then 5 MPH you'd never know there was a problem with the car. Also, my CEL came on for the third time now too - I'm not sure yet (haven't run the code THIS time) but the last two have been fuel trim issues. Both times I throw a thing of dry gas in the tank and the CEL goes away about an hour later. I'm pretty sure they are related, but not 100% sure.
I've spoken with a mechanically inclined friend of mine, he thinks it could be a leak in a vacuum hose - I have to get the timing belt replaced so I figured I'd just have the hoses done then. However, if anyone has any other possible ideas what could be causing this phantom problem that would be pretty cool.
Also, I did notice last weekend (during a 850 mile road trip in which the car never had the idling issue) that my temp gauge went up to 75%, then about 10 minutes later was back down to 50%. It was the first time I'd seen it that high, but the car was full of people and stuff, and we were going uphill and had the A/C on so I'm thinking that was just because the car had a lot of strain on it... I don't think it's related. Since then the temp has always been stuck at 50%.
Anyhow, any thoughts would be very welcome - thanks! :)