Rough Idle.

[SN95StangMan]

My car is idling like sh**. When I first turn the car on, it feels ok, but after about 30 seconds, it starts to rumble. I dont really know how to describe it, but it sounds like the engine is struggling. I let the car sit in my driveway in "park" for about 2 minutes and it just started to sputter and the RPM's dropped to about 500 and floated around there. It sounded like it was going to die so I just turned it off. When I was driving home from school it felt fine, nothing unusual. What could be causing this?

 

[TimHorth]

Mine did the same thing...it was the harmonic balancer...after that it was fine!

 

[SN95StangMan]

How hard is it to relace the balancer?

 

[xYoung347x]

very easy, rent a tool from autozone, some basic tools and your good to go.

 

[1105]

Check to see if it really is your balancer first. Thoes things are kinda expencive. Look on the back side of it, and if you see rubber sticking out its bad and needs to be replaced, if you don't see any rubber sticking out of the back its fine.

 

[j1586]

run the diagnostic computer on your car first. it sounds like the O2 sensors, the run in an open loop until the reach operating temperature. they cause a real rough idle.

 

[SN95StangMan]

thanks for the help. It turned out to be a vacum leak. My brother took out the vac line that was causing my A/C to malfunction and didnt have time to replace it. Replaced the line and it runs fine now.