Sporadic High Idle

[jettblaster]

Hi All,

I have searched this forum for answers, but I am not finding anything definative. I have a strange idle issue. When I start the car in the morning, it is fine. But after driving for a while, the idle slowly works its way up to about 1500 RPM. This makes it difficult in traffic as the car doesn't like to slow down without using the brakes. When this happens, the transmission starts acting wierd as well. It takes longer to upshift, as if the tranny thinks I am stepping on the gas harder than I am. Then if I add just a little power, it will downshift way before it normally would. After parking the car for several hours, when started again, it will idle anywhere between 1500 - 2000 RPM. I shut it off, start it, it does it again. But, always on the third time, it is fine. But half way home (about 25 minutes on the highway) it starts creeping up again. I don't have a lot of money and I don't want the dealer spending it all searching for the problem. Does anyone have any ideas? I have a 99, 3.5 with about 97,000 trouble free miles.

Thanks!

[lunasea808]

Try pulling the codes first. If you live near an autozone they'll do it for free. Then come back and post the results I myself or others will post the problem and how to fix. There's alot of good people here to help you out.

[jettblaster]

I have been trying to reply to this for days but have been having problems logging into the site. I did exactly that. Autozone in my area has a reader that translates the codes for them. Luckily, it was the cheapest thing it could have been. I replaced the throttle position sensor and all is well! It only cost $29 and about an hour of my time. The car is back to normal and I love my Intrigue again!

[lunasea808]

Great to hear it was something easy to fix and cheap. lol