Rob Stegmann

I put a new starter in and follow procedure to reset the throttle. I have all electrics off, turn key to on for two seconds and start the car, run at 3000 rpm till engine temp comes up, then let foot off gas, rpm's go up and down from 1000-2000 for the five minutes and do not settle down. Also when i start it at 3000rpm, it drops down and comes up so i have to keep adjusting the gas to hold at 3000.

I run at 3000 till fans come on or temp comes to normal hot then let off the gas.

Rpm's go from 1000-2000 for my closed throttle 5 minute time but it doesnt stop doing that.

It did a time or two drop a little and my check engine light came on but still rough idle at 1000-1200 rpm. I then unplugged battery cable and light goes off till i run the procedure again.

Any ideas? Going to try it again and see, did this last year when replacing the starter and it worked but not now, i also just cleaned throttle barrel out too.

poorman212

Get the codes. Post them just for giggles. If you have some sort of code, this is likely yhe issue you are having with the idle.

Is this a four or six cyl car......and what trans.

Rob Stegmann

Problem solved and here is what I gather happened! After numerous times trying to program the idle, I drove it to Discount Auto to check engine light error. Said too much air intake basically, no error numbers.

So I took off the IAC and cleaned it up a bit but also tried to test it with a meter, it did work fine prior to installing the starter. BUT I remember when taking the throttle barrel off the socket handle slipped out of my hand and rotated right onto the + battery terminal causing a nice spark/short to the throttle barrel, I got to thinking with my slightly smarter than a monkey human brain, "maybe it shorted out something on the throttle barrel?" I tested the leads on the IAC with the meter, don't know much but put it on ohms and read contacts both outside and each outside contact to the center contact. Wasn't getting much of a reading and thought well, let me go buy a NEW IAC, test it the same way and compare it to my old one, well the new one gave a significant reading on one set of prongs that my old one didn't. So I put the new IAC in and it ran perfect!

Just saved me a $90 service fee from a local mechanic shop plus parts at their cost! $82. bill for my fix.

So if you idle runs up and down between the 1000-2000 rpm I'd say it's a good chance it's your IAC control! Just pull the connector off and check the leads with a meter. I probably shorted out mine while changing my starter by accident. Lesson learned, cover up that + battery terminal while working with tools close to it!

Also fyi for anyone changing a starter, you don't have to remove the radiator or take off the hoses from the TB, there is enough room to get to it without all that extra work you see people doing on their UTube videos! I may post a pic here of what I did to help someone out.