The car has been running great. The day before Thanksgiving I drove 1200 miles from Florida to NJ. Had a few wierd noises when I was starting the car after stopping for fuel. Now on startup I'm getting a very harsh idle from about 400 to 1300 rpms. Its all over the place. Then after a maybe 20 seconds at the most it smooths itself out and runs great. Any ideas out there? Oh yeah, and does anyone know what warrranty companies still cover us? Please help!! thanks guys
94 FD Touring. Auto
HKS Downpipe
Greddy Turbo Timer
Autometer Boost Guage

 

This may sound absurd, but change the plug wires. My car would intermittantly have a rough start, sometimes starting only after about 6 tries. Hot start, cold start, didn't matter. Car would idle terribly missing the whole time and after about 10-15 seconds clear out. Once running it was beautiful; no missing at speed. I could smell fuel during cranking so knew I had an intermittant ignition problem.

The plug wires looked like a possibility (cheap and easy at that) and changing them cured it. My guess at this point is that they can chafe on the fuel lines and even though I saw nothing visible (other than baked on oil from letting some dribble down the oil fill tube at one point) new wires cured it. The boots were in good shape and the connections didn't appear loose; just missed at startup.

I can't answer why it only happened at starting and went away with the engine running though.

 

first things first.......
DO A SEARCH

you probably just popped off the hose at the MAP sensor though. look on the driver's side right next to the firewall....little black box that says boost sensor on it. if the hose on the bottom becomes disconnected itll idle like ****.

if thats not it, then check all other vacuum hoses. dont panic.....chill and check

 

My mechanic had a pretty good explanation of what it could possibly be. I don't want to post what he said because I want other opinions from everyone else. i would also like to add that my add coolant lite has been coming on intermittanly, mainly just during startup. THanks for the reply's guys. I appreciate it. From what he said it could be expensive!!

 

Good god hope it's not the o-rings!

 

ivanuscg,

Have you checked your coolant level?

Have you seen any coolant leaking under your car?

When your engine is cold, open up the filler neck cap (make sure the engine is cold). See if there was any pressure release when you opened it. If not you may just need a new cap, if so, leave the cap off for a minute. Then put it back on and check your coolant level again.

If your coolant level is still fine and your coolant light/alarm is still coming on intermittently, it's probably failed o-rings.