bfitchett@comcast.net wrote:
: First off its a 1998 CC V6. Here is the problem. Last week on the way home
: from work the truck just died (a couple of times at that). It would restart
: fine and would be going fine until I let off the gas at which time the RPMs
: would drop to about 500 and then stumble and die. I got home but had to keep
: the RPMs up and couldnt really let off the gas and let it idle. Funny thing is
: if I could get stopped and SLOWLY let off the gas, it would drop in RPMs then
: come back up and be fine. I got into work the same way this morning. I know
: it probably needs some TLC. A transmission service and oil change are on tap.
: Plugs, wires, cap and rotor were done about 1 year ago back when I was in Utah.
: Truck made it to Chicago just fine and had been going strong since then
: (July). Maybe the cold temps have something to do with it.
This is just a guess, but maybe your IAC (idle air control)
motor is on the fritz. When you let off on the gas and the
throttle body butterflies close, maybe the IAC can't open back
up fast enough to prevent the engine from dying. If the IAC plunger
is moving really slowly, it might be that easing the RPMs down gives
it enough time to open back up to a point where the engine can idle.
Maybe it needs a cleaning or outright replacement.
Something you might be able to try is while the engine is running,
try to cover the thottle body butterflies and the IAC opening with
your hand in an attempt to starve the engine of air and cause the
IAC to open up. Once it has opened up all the way (or a lot),
unplug the connector from the IAC which will leave it in the open
position, then you can go for a drive and see if letting off the
gas will still kill the engine. Another thing you could try just
on a temporary basis is to remove the IAC from the engine completely
rather than trying to get it to open as I described above. (Note
that this will allow unfiltered air into the throttle body.) The
only thing is that I'm not sure how much air that will allow through
at idle - the idle may be too high. But if the idle stays somewhat
reasonable, say 2000rpm or below, that might help to narrow the
problem down to the IAC.
You could always buy an IAC and see if that fixes the problem
of course, but I don't like the "throw parts at it" approach
to auto repair; I'd prefer to figure out what the problem is and
replace or repair only the parts that actually need it. If you
can't think of anything else though I suppose you could give that
a try; especially if you buy it from a store with a good return
policy so that you can return it if it doesn't turn out to be the
problem.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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