Re: idle problem solved and thanks

["Richard" <dmc_driver@xxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, billsfanmd@xxxx wrote:
> With the help of Martin and Rich Acuti this time I may have solved
my idle 
> problem. My idle was sluggish, my car surged up and down when cold
and I had RPM ... Me and Rich took a test drive and no more idle dips. 


Yes, this goes against everything we hold sacred on the DML, but I
just did the same thing last week! My car would stall quite a bit
while in reverse and then shifting back into 1st gear, or any time I
revved the throttle a bit. It seemed as if the idle-speed motor
couldn't catch the sudden rpm drop fast enough and the engine would
quit. It was really quite embarassing when there was 10 or so people
drooling at my car at the mall or coffee-shop to have it stall while
backing out of my parking space! I put in a new O2 sensor and that
solved the idle "hunting", but nothing else. Sometimes the idle system
would over-compensate and would shoot up to 2000rpm. Now, I read in
the manual and on the DML that those 3 screws should be fully seated
and left alone, but finally I got fed up enough to try experimenting
with them.

Here's what I did: After starting the car and letting it warm up, I
shut it down and opened the idle screw 4 turns and then the other two
screws 2 turns. ( I read that in the archives.) Then I started it
back up and slowly closed the idle screw until the engine settled back
down to 750rpm. Probably ended up with the same screw settings as
you. Now it idles great, no more stalling and it runs much better. It
even gets a little better fuel mileage too.

I know that someone out there is going to tell me and probably you
too, that we shouldn't have messed with those screws because we're
just masking an underlying problem with the idle system, but it works
great for now, and I will parking my DMC soon for the winter anyway
and doing lots of work on it the next few months, so I figured what
the heck. :-)


Richard Rowe
5853