All Kinds of issues

[painintheassrodeo]

Where do I start?Isuzu Rodeo 1998, V6. I had my Rodeo for 8 years, it was fine for 6 and then husband/personal mechanic left and slowly things deteriorated. First...noises and hesitations (mild) and in cold weather horn starts from the alarm. For the past year CEL is on and autozone has done codes on it started with MAF which was when my light would flash on and power was not there, idling high at tmes and dying when slowing or idling. My car has 160K miles manual 5 sp, no big jobs done on it...idler pulley done and clutch done cultch fan also. Never got the MAF problem fixed, just lived with the intermitten problems. Now light stays on, had a code spark plug 4 misfiring, and TPS and MAF...had firestone diagnostic and tune up and injection cleaning done.....idled high still to 1500 rpm and sometimes surge up to 3k and down again. Changed TPS myself...still no change.....Car mechanic said engine is cool and not getting hot enough which would send false codes. Hmmmm? Now I took out fuse for horn cause horn stayed on from a cold night and wouldnt go off. Now I found my fan clutch attached to fan disconnected and some blades are broken. Cant read my codes at autozone now for some reason, they say someone must have undid a wire and its not getting a reading.
Presently......My car now stalls ALOT when starting to go or slow, it jerks and shakes the crap outta you going all down the road at a steady 10-40 mph, seems like its a gas air mix problem, I have to let off accelerator and coast to drive smoothly or else gas the heck out of it for it to stop jerking and throwing me around. From a stoplight it does this too and I know people think I cant drive a stick... I have heard wind noises from like the glove box area when highway driving (maybe the clutch fan binding up?) I loved this car and need it so bad, its my only car to get to work....I know I need a thermostat, its a big job cause its location...but could that be the whole problem with everything else? Sorry so long but had to be discriptive....thanks

[amigo-2k]

The high idle that fluctuates is probably the intake manifold gasket.

The alarm issue is due the that switch under the hood. It just needs to be adjusted up some so when it is cold out it will still be in the off position.

[Justpow]

Sounds like you have a couple separate problems,
A bad MAF will cause the jerking, if its reading either too little air flow or too much will set the fuel mixture at a fixed amount, could be too much or too little,
2nd, a thermostat will either stick closed or open, stuck closed will cause it to over heat quickly or stuck open will cause it to run cold and eventually overheat on the hwy. A low coolant level will cause the surging because the coolant sensor cant properly read the temperature of air, only coolant. check for a coolant leak, possible intake gaskets.
I would get the clutch fan and blades fixed, that will cause an engine cooling/overheating issue
Code reader cant read codes? Check wiring from PCM to DLC, if OK, check fuses and voltage drop power and ground feeds to pcm, if all OK suspect faulty PCM.
good luck with this thing.
Justin

[painintheassrodeo]

Thank you very much for the relpies and I will look into them further. As it is now I got the fan clutch in there and ordered fan itself. The fan is off now but fan clutch is on. My dad took off TPS and put back on, its driving alot better now, idle is better and heater works better, lot less jerking. My dad said acceleration has slack in it and needs to be tightened. If it gets worse I will check the manifold as suggested. Thanks again!!

[FL 3.2L]

Whose TPS? I had bad luck with NAPA and Advance. Fixed it with an Isuzu TPS.

Overdue for a timing belt job?

Do you still have misfires? Consider the coilpacks. Also make sure you have the OEM plugs. 98+ are particular about the plugs (ion sensing...).

Get the thermostat swapped now. You are running rich if the stat is stuck open. Bad fuel economy and burning up the catalytic converters.

Good luck!

[Cat Fuzz]

Originally Posted by FL 3.2L

Whose TPS? I had bad luck with NAPA and Advance. Fixed it with an Isuzu TPS.

Overdue for a timing belt job?

Do you still have misfires? Consider the coilpacks. Also make sure you have the OEM plugs. 98+ are particular about the plugs (ion sensing...).

Get the thermostat swapped now. You are running rich if the stat is stuck open. Bad fuel economy and burning up the catalytic converters.

Good luck!

2000 and newer are ion sensing systems. 99 and older are not.