Idle high, hard start cold, dies when stopped

SATALLIE

MEMBER
1993 SATURN STATION WAGON
82,000 MILES

Car requires gas pedal be depressed when starting and when cold takes a little while and when it starts, sends out a puff of smoke. Wagon"s idle is high (1800) and never kicks down when warmed up. Further when I stop for a red light, I have to remember to put in neutral and give gas for a second and then put in gear. If I don"t do this and try to go in gear(man 5 spd.)The car sputters and dies. I then have to put foot to floor on gas pedal and repeat. Sometimes coming to a stop it dies on own. This problem came on suddenly with no pre-condion symptoms. This is the DOHC, 1.9L, manual trans. Wagon with painted bumpers. Car has been really well cared for, no accidents or abuse with low miles Help! California smog check coming up soon and no way will it pass running like this. Thanks

Saturday, October 26th, 2013 AT 12:16 PM

2 Replies

JDL

MECHANIC
16,098 POSTS

How long since a tune-up? Check for applicable trouble codes, with obd1, you should be able to check codes, yourself. Clean the throttle body and idle air system, make sure throttle linkage is ok.

Also, check for a vacuum leak.

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Saturday, October 26th, 2013 AT 12:47 PM

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,869 POSTS

Just to add to this one sounds like a bad coolant temp sensor really common on those cars. Will cause those symptoms and a whole more they start reading colder then actual temp and the engines flood run rich etc. Also inspect the inside of the connector if the terminals are blue or green instead of silver replace the connector also. Your car has two sensors screwed into the head you want the bottom one with two wires. You have a yellow wire and a black wire going to it. The top one with just a green wire is for the gauge.

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Monday, December 9th, 2013 AT 8:46 AM