car dies if engine doesnt rev

[fugmire]

Be gentle..i know little. I search FAQ forum and couldn't find what I think is my problem. I have a 96' esi manual talon. When I turn my car on it will either conk out immediately following, or it will almost conk out but catch itself and continue to idle. When I drive to work (in order to keep my car alive), I have to keep revving, or if I am just in gear driving it is fine. Everytime I come to a stop light and I sit in neutral my car will just shut off and I have to turn it on again. A guy I work with told me this was a typical problem amongst dsm's around 120k miles and something dealing with the idol control. He says it can be fixed just by turning a screw? Is there truth to this? If so, where is the screw or how do I adjust it? Or any other thoughts? I'd love to not have to pay someone if you honestly think it's something I can fix myself.

any help appreciated
thanks

 

[TJGoSurf]

adjusted your cas?

 

[hereitcomes]

that screw that he is talking about is an idle control, but i believe that you need a special tool to turn it. its like a weird + sign. I had that problem on my 95 ESi only when it was damp out, and it was my ECU. I got a new one and that solved the problem. I dont think it could be the idle..beucase a strong idle will either be consistantly low, or consistantly high. Its shorting out somewhere and is getting cut off from either fuel or spark. Post more on what you find. good luck man.

 

[Vandal]

Have you checked for any vacuum leaks? My ESi would do that upon start up and up until it got into closed loop mode.

 

[fugmire]

i let the roadshop guy where i work (circuit city) look at it, and he took off my intake and noticed a build of crap in my throttle body and he said the reason my car would idle funny but stay on and other times just cut off shortly was because there was a build up (of something, i dono technicalities) around the butterfly valve in my throttle body and sometimes it would get stuck and other times it may flow, but i purchased a $3 can of throttle body cleaner and emptied the can into it this morning before work and it's been working perfectly since. So, luckily, a $3 fix and I'm on my way. He also said I should ###### replace my air filter or just soak mine in 'water and soap'? if I remember correctly he said water and soap would work, any suggestions on air filters? good ones to use? I just have a basic Injen Intake I put on in 2002 to waste money and haven't replaced the filter yet...

thx for input guys

 

[crunchymilk]

that screw that he is talking about is an idle control, but i believe that you need a special tool to turn it. its like a weird + sign. I had that problem on my 95 ESi only when it was damp out, and it was my ECU. I got a new one and that solved the problem. I dont think it could be the idle..beucase a strong idle will either be consistantly low, or consistantly high. Its shorting out somewhere and is getting cut off from either fuel or spark. Post more on what you find. good luck man.

Just chiming in that all you need is a flathead to turn that screw. It's called the BISS screw, more info is easily found on a search

Glad to see it was only a 3 dollar fix, about your filter, they're pretty much all the same. If you want the "best", but a K&N for it, but a filter is pretty much a filter, unless it's a 5 dollar piece of garbage from ebay or something.

 

[Jebus[tuning]]

Well if you want to get technical, the BISS is a phillips, but I don't know where they are on the 420a.

 

[crunchymilk]

a flathead works better

in fact, i never could get a philips of any size to fit

 

[fugmire]

a flathead works better

in fact, i never could get a philips of any size to fit

I could not get anything to fit, but that may also be because I was looking at the wrong screw. We tried it at night (as my first attempt to fix my car a few days back) but couldn't really see into my engine bay, so he told me what to do and the next morning I went out in the light to fix it but I noticed that the screw was entirely flat. It had no indentations on it to allow a screwdriver to fit. Is the BISS screw the screw that the throttle control rests on?

 

[97EclipseGSTer]

yeah, my throttle body did that at one point, the worst day of my life....I was driving down the highway and my Thottle Position sensor went on and I reset it and it went away. Then about a week or so later I noticed my car was burning a CRAP load of oil from under the hood. I couldnt figure what it was....I thought it was cam seals or something small. Well god punished me and my bearings were completely gone in the turbo, my shaft literatly moved back and forth. So in conclusion, its was from the build up of crap ( specifically oil) that caused my Throttle Body to get stuck and idle like cheese.....

I really hate this title as a Newbie.......Kinda stinks. Ive been posting for a while and I can never get my hands dirty in the big boys forums. I have been a true dsmer since I was 14, I new I wanted an eclipse turbo and I bought a boost controller and a blow off valve.