OK, here's the situation:

AEM CAI - did not recirc the valve cover hose
Boe fuel rail
RRM axleback
NGK plug wires

OK, that's about all that I can think of that would affect the way the car runs.

When idling, the car will kind of ... stutter might be the best word. It becomes something of a cycle. When you stand there, you watch it run fine for a bit, make a sound like it's going to stall, and then pick back up. This continues as a pattern.

From the inside of the car, you can occasionally see the RPMs dip down to 500 when this happens. I have firm motor mounts, so you feel the engine jerk when it happens.

Talked it over with my usual mechanic (dad) and he doesn't think it's the recirc (which I suspected). He's dumbfounded and thinks it might be an electrical issue.

Any ideas?

 

mine has started doing about the same thing after I installed a SRI

 

I have this same problem but i have SRI; ive had it run perfect before; but it was after a reset (removing the battery terminal) but ive reset it since then and it isnt the same. I thought it could be the fact that i might have not let it idle long enough but then again it might just be bad plugs (on my part atleast). I also have a ground kit w/ like 8ga wire (small i know. it might even be 12) but i think i am going to take it off and see if it affects it. Anyway good luck. I would like to know any general fixes as well; ill check back.
-heath

 

just a few ideas but,
grounds, plugs, plug wires, gas, injector cleanliness, pcv valve, battery.
all i can think of right now, but im sure there is more that causes weird idling.
i changed my pcv and that wasnt it by the way. im guessing its your plugs, how many miles u got.

 

kelspar beat me to it.
try getting a GOOD set of plugs
buy either denso's or buy the ngk's if your cheap.lol

 

DJ, when you pull a hard U-Turn do you feel the car start to bogg out or stutter? I used to have that problem... not anymore. I know it sounds stupid, but after I got my grounding kit the problem went away. Check out my sig for Ground Fusion website. And Ground Fusion Thread for my write up.

Fox

Edit: It also helped even out my idle.

 

Its the airflow sensor on our cars. Putting an intake on them makes the airflow characteristics change a lot, thus giving the ECU some odd air intake numbers. Happens to me all the time. It will get worse if you turn on your air or defrost.

 

My plugs are 20k old by now. I just replaced the stock wires with NGK ones.

Had a ground kit a while back, but not currently. If it's a ground . . . yeesh. I don't want to hunt for that.

Gas - doesn't matter what gas I have. Still does it.

Injectors - just put in injector cleaner. I hope it's not them.

Battery seems OK otherwise.

PCV - thanks for the tip.

 

Any way around that? Do I need to go back to the stock air intake?

 

just wondering what kind of plugs you have, they might need to be changed again. also, injector cleaner is only for light build-up that you feel under heavy load. you might need to get them professionally cleaned, but i dont think thats it anyway. the pcv prolly aint it, but you can check it by unscrewing it and seeing if it moves freely or is locked up. if you dont know where it is, its the metal screw coming out of the top of the valve cover and is attached to a vaccum line, just pull the line off and unscrew it.

 

NGK plugs. Forget the exact specs, as it's been about a year.

Yeah, I think if it was the injectors, I'd notice it all the time. But that's a guess.

I may check the PCV just in case. And yes, I knew what it was. But thanks.

 

Blacksheepdj I had the same problem in my lancer and I have noticed it while installing a grounding kit (crap) on my car. Took off the grounding kit and it was still there. I have checked everything, restarted the ecu few times, etc. One of my friends told me to play with the screw on the throttle body to adjust the idle. I know it's not good to mess with it. I had a SES light because I set it to high. Just turn it about 6-8 times counter clockwise just so it's about 870 rpm when you have you headlights "ON".
Otherwise if you don't want to play with it just leave it alone. Mine is fixed.

 

Yeah, resetting the battery does nothing.

I'm wary of playing with the idle screw. I dunno.