I went job hunting today, I pulled out of a parking lot and had just turned the A/C on a couple minutes before and sitting at the stop light I looked down at the tach and it was at like 300 RPM and i freaked out and then the light turned green and the car acted like it was going to die I was able to get it into a parking lot under its own power and then popped the hood and pulled the air box off and began checking all my connections and plug wires etc.

I attempted to start the car again and the engine couldnt stay running, its hard to describe but the RPMS would jump from around 300 to 1000 a few times and then die, I double checked everything and and tried again, no dice. Triple checked everything and then it started and purred like usual....

I jumped in a drove home and now im posting this.

Any suggestions?

 

When you say "checked everything" what did you include .... maybe plug wires?

 

Sounds like the idle stabilizer acting up. On mine it would come and go without warning. Do a search on the subject and find the blast of WD-40 trick to see if it frees up. If that doesn't fix it... It may be time to have some FUN pulling the intake.

Regards,
Bill
Having more FUN than humanly possible!

 

Yea I included plug wires, I just went out there and it looks like I have a bad coil, theres alot of corrosion in it, I cleaned it out pretty good and she is running fine now....

Wild Bill, I already went through that adventure several months ago.

 

I'd check the fuel pump relay and or the fuel pump fuse to start. (Your owner's manual will show what is present on your model and where it is located).

 

Mine was doing that several months ago. It was the ISV. WD 40 didn't work so the ISV had to be replaced.

 

Another thought in case the rest do not pan out. I had the same with my '88. I parked the car in a parking lot, ran into the store, came out and the car barely idled. Put it in drive and it would die. I played with it for about 10 minutes and finally gave up. After the car cooled down a little, it fired up and drove normally. It turned out that my LH was failing. The reason it did not go completely out like a stock LH was because the PO had already had the LH rebuilt by a cheapo company in CA. The LH was failing and making the car run horribly rich. Got it rebuilt by Electronik Repair in AZ and all was back to perfect.

 

Another clue to see if the LH had been rebuilt by the cheapo company in CA is if the case cover of the LH had been spray painted gray. This is one of their trademarks. haha

 

Sounds exactly like the problem I"m having in my threaad that started with the Y connector:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...highlight=idle


My next things to check are what Randy suggested, if it's not something related to the fuel system, I think I'll be trying the LH swap.

If it's an ISV problem, would the car actually die, or just have a fluctuating idle?

 

Sounds like an event is near.

 

If it was an ISV it would have a fluctuating idle and not die, AFAIK. I am 98% positive its not an ISV problem.


She seems to be running top notch at the moment... lets hope it stays that way for this weekend.

 

It may not be your problem, but a faulty ISV can most certainly cause the engine to die.

 

Start with the easiest and cheapest first. You've identified corrosion re coil. The boot (connection) coming off the coil seems to be a prime candidate for this, BTDT. It's part of the TB annual check.