trust me...ive been searching and researching for a long time now and still havnt been able to solve this.

basically, ive got a low idle (around 500 or so), but only after the car is warmed up and only if im in drive (its an a/t).if i stop at a light and put it in park, it jumps back up to 800. also, if ive been on the highway doing 70 mph for a while, and then i stop, the idle is normal, but a couple stoplights later it will have gone back to 500. its really annoying cause the whole car trembles and shakes. also, its a 95, and it seems like i remember someone else on here with a 95 and a similar problem, but i never saw a solution to it anywhere.

ive changed wires and plugs..no difference.. fuel filter is being changed tomorow, but because it idles perfectly in all gears other than drive i dont suspect fuel/ignition problems. i know someone is going to tell me to check my vacuum lines, but im an idiot and i dont know the first place to start looking for those.;) any thoughts????

I wouldn't imagine it being your vac lines. Your cars idle is set way too low... even when its at 800 thats to low... My 96 idles at 1150RPM. If it was a new enigne it would be able to handle lower RPM, but a 95 I would up that RPM. Just try and up your idle. If you dont know how to do this, then read on. On your throttle body theres a sliding plate mounted with two bolts and a cable connected to your throttle. Lossen both bolts and slide the plate away from the throttle, then tighten the bolts in that postion. Then turn your car on and see where its idling at. Also move the sliding bar only alittle at a time until you get your car at the RPM you want. Hey, its worth a try and most likly well help you out. Good luck.

i dunno my 96 auto idles about 500-600 rpm but if i do any type of stop at a stop light my rpms goto 200 for a second then jump back up to 500-600. i was told by the dealerships(dodge, chrysler, 2 mitsu dealers, and a jeep/eagle dealer) it was normal, but i think they r feeding me bull sh*t.

My car idles at ~800. If you idle at 1150 then it's too high. Look in the service manual ;)

The manual well say that because the manual was made when the engine was new. Each engine is going to wear differently and if yours can idle at 800 then your engine is in good shape but his is at 500RPM and I never advised him to make it 1150 I just told him to move it until he's reached the RPM he wants! I want mine at 1150RPM. (better sound at lights) 1150RPM isnt bad its still within specs. It just depends on what he wants. If its sputtering at 500 and thats what his car runs at then he should increase it till its in a better location. I cant imagine his car has anything wrong with it.

My car, after driving for a bit, and stopping at a light goes down to like 200-300!! (the second bar after 0) Pretty funny stuff...I wait for it to stall but it doesn't - it will jump up to about 350 but thats it....seems fine though....weird?

My intake also backfires once and awhile now....but I think thats because I accidently gased, the stopped then pinned it.

thanks for the suggestion, i tried a while back doing that, and even the smallest ajustment to the throttle resulted in the brakes trying to "fight" the engine. i really had to mash down on the break to keep it from groaning and creaking forward. i might try it again soon though, all the shaking is really annoying!;)

BTW to everyone else that has the "up and down" idle....i had the same problem for a while and it got progressivly worse, turns out i had bent a valve. just something to keep in mind. also check the spark plug wires, had the exact same thing happen when those went bad too.

are there any sensors i should check out? i recently cleaned my TB and as much of the intske manifold as i could, but it didnt make a difference. ive heard of cleaning the IAC (i think thats it) motor on the side of the TB...how do you do that?


thanks again to everyone....a few months ago i didnt know what a throttle body was!! this place has some great info and great posters.:)

mine was doing the exact same thing, she used to idle at about 1000 or so, lil under or over. Now she idles at about 500 to 1000 jumping back and forth, i've already gotten NGK plugs, getting wires, but seems to me that that may not even work.. Good luck, hope you find out what's wrong, I need to check my TB, and then next I'm guessing it's my coil pack, i hope not, but ya never know..

thanks for the kind words!:)

try the wires, i bet thats the problem. i just replaced my fuel filter tonight, but i'd already had too many beers to do a test drive by the time i was done (after 140,000 miles and no filter change, those nuts were TIGHT!!!;). ill try it out tomorrow and see if there's a difference. the coil pack is next i guess. im also replacing the alternator within the next week or so with a high-output one. hopefully that will help.

ok i know this thread is over a year old but this is the only thread that talks about exactly the same problem i am experiencing so i ll post on this one. to the person who started this, did you ever find out what exactly it was that caused the problem you were experiencing? any help would be appreciated. thanks

check all ur sensors on ur intake manifold and throttle body.

if your problem is that when you switch from park to drive, your idle goes down, that is not a problem. all autos do that. my old oldsmobile did that. just normal. if your idle is really low, there should be an idle adjustment somewhere i believe.

Originally posted by Diceman19
if your problem is that when you switch from park to drive, your idle goes down, that is not a problem. all autos do that. my old oldsmobile did that. just normal. if your idle is really low, there should be an idle adjustment somewhere i believe.

thanks for the help but its doesn't happen all the time. i run at about 600-700 rpm normally at idle. 700-800 after the morning warm up but will drop back down to 600-700 eventually. after driving for a bit and i come to a light, sometimes it ll just drop to 300-400 rpm. almost guaranteed to happen when traffic is stop and go. it doesn't happen when i shift from park to drive. if anything, i shift out of drive to neutral to bring up the rpm when it acts up but shifting from park/neutral to drive even after that, it will be fine. anymore ideas? thanks

ok, just replaced the IAC, still same thing. any other ideas? thanks

Same problem with my car also. Idles really low on start up car shakes sputters, intake sounds like it's sucking in soo much air it gets really loud. I thought maybe the sensors on the throttle body so I got a throttle body from a friend with the sensors and put that on there. Still kinda does it. Would you still recommend wires cause I dont really want to spend money I dont need to. I have the stockers in there right now and I also have a set of accels, but it's done it with both of them. They aren't that new, but same results.

If you have no luck with the idle...

Adjust the throttle plate to open slightly more.

Do this, or loosen the two bolts that hold the throttle cable to the intake mani, and pull back on the cable slightly.

This will open the throttle plate slightly. You can do this while its running to achieve optimum idle.

However this should be only a temp solution because the throttle cable will lossen as it expands over time.

The thing is when it warms up the idle is fine. So I dont think I should touch the idle just yet. Possibly thinking the air temp sensor? Kinda stumped on this one. I'am thinking about doing a compression test cause maybe the dude messed up doing the headgasket. Also maybe the egr could be bad? The thing that bothers me a lot is when I take off and have to give it more pedal pressure to accelerate like it's bogging then it kicks in all of a sudden. Sucks when your taking off and getting down the street and need the power to cross and it's laging lol.

Alright well I unhooked the EGR at idle and shes sucking in air. Should I get a new egr or is there a way to fix it?

3 posts in a row lol. Anybody else have any ideas. I took the egr off cleaned it out and still no dice. I'am mostly work on my 92 turbo awd and I'am not that familiar with some stuff on the non-turbo chrysler engine. I see this plastic line that comes from the back of the intake manifold up infront of the cylinder head. Hooking up to this circular looking piece that connects to the EGR. The plastic line looks like it has been repaired in the past by shrink wrap. Could this possibly be the problem? I'am going to the dealer today and going to order the new line because it looks like it's in desperate need of repair. Thanx for the imput.