got my engine rebuilt this past summer and the idle was a little rough and I was told that was normal. But it has been almost a year and It is still idling rough. It could be a different problem, could have been the rebuild at first and now its something else. The idle is fine at startup, nice and high as it was set for the rebuild but then it drops down after it cools off but its not a clean drop. It goes dangerously close to stalling then comes back up and then too low again repeatedly. My acceleration is fine but the idle when stopped worries me. I am hearing some high pitched squeeling (NOT THE BELTS) that goes up and down in pitch and loudness with the idle, I was thinking it was some sort of vacume leak that may or may not be realted to the idle. Also I never readjusted the idle after the rebuild because i wanted to wait till it got more even. Could the high idle setting be contributing?
PLEASE please please give me some ideas I dont have a clue as to what is going on. I cant pin point the noise and the idle is a bitch. Also sean you told me that when I turn my steering whell I am putting weight on the engine because something was broken cant remember the name though.
HELP!

 

I would start with a TPS adjustment, and an idle adjustment. The FSM outlines the procedure for idle adjustment. www.fc3s.org has the FSM.

 

Is the TPS setting within specification? Did you ever determine if you had a vacuum leak? Are all your grounds good/attached? That should be a start for you.

TPS adjustment can be found here. You can sometimes use starter fluid to determine a vacuum leak. Spray it around the throttle body a bit and if the idle suddenly jumps you might have a vacuum leak. As for grounds, I would suggest searching a bit on here and make sure you have all the grounds attached and you might even want to add more. There are a bunch of things this could be. Those were the first things that came to mind.

J-Rat:

 

ok first of all i would like to congradulate you on a super sweet triple post.......Second of all I bet a good TPS adjustment would really solve your problem. The tps is controled by the "gold" screw with a spring below it on the front of your Throttle body. It connects to a "plunger" with 3 wires connected to it (if yours is an s4 (86-88 model year) one of the wire is green another is orange.... Warm your car up fully then take an ohm meter and put the probes in the plunger side of the connector and turn the screw untill your plunger ohms out at 1k ohms. I think i am explaining that right, someone correct me if i'm wrong, the search function is currently unoperational BUT look for "tps adjustment 101" when it's back on line andit'll explain it better. good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

RRTEC,

Dont get all pissy cause his runs and yours doesnt....

 

Hey it runs......just terribly.. And i am a little pissy tonight...sorry to all i **** off....But jeez i had to drive my wifes slushbox Alero today, give me a break...

 

Ugh..My condolences. you know I was just poking at you. All in good fun.