Can You Help Me With Some Idle Problems?

Hey, guys. Some of you might remember me. I'm the guy that was going to grad school in San Diego that got his 1991 Talon stolen TWICE in six weeks. Well, I know I've been off of the map for a while. Sorry about that. Ever since I graduated, I've been in and out of the country, and ever since I went back to finish my studies, the Talon has been in storage. So, even though there are still a few problems, I've yet to start working on them. Well, that is, until now.

So, I pulled the car out. She hadn't been started in well over a year. Didn't matter, though. She started up with only a minimum of effort. However, I'm having idle problems. I was having this problem before I left, just never got around to fixing her. The biggest thing is that she's idling way too high. Somewhere around 2500 rpm all the time. She's supposed to idle a bit higher on start-up cuz of the cold idle switch. But, it's supposed to drop to around 800 rpm or so. She won't do that. Just stays around 2500 rpm. You guys got any ideas as to what to check on this?

Well, most of the time she stays at 2500. Sometimes, she'll go into a bit of an idle surge where it'll jump at a regular interval between about 1200 rpm and 2500 rpm. Weird!!

First off, let me tell you about the throttle body. The BISS is bottomed out. Can't screw it in anymore. Plus, the sensor that stops the throttle from falling all the way back (can't remember the name of it off the top of my head - has a single wire connector to it and screws sideways into the throttle body) is bottomed out, too. So, it's not a mechanical thing. Gotta be electrical, right?

Let me give you a little more background. Ever since I got the car back and resurrected her, I've had a few problems. I'm having turbo issues. My mechanic is convinced that the turbo is shot. It wasn't when they took it, but I guess that doesn't mean much. They raped everything else, so who knows what they did to the turbo. Also, I've got a constant hot that drains the battery overnight. So, gotta disconnect it or get a jump. My buddy's an electrician, and we're going to work on that this weekend. Not sure if my idle troubles are related to these other things, but I just wanted to give you an idea what we were looking at.

Other than these problems, my Talon is doing okay. She's not where she was before they took her, by any stretch of the imagination. But, she's doing good, all things considered. If you can give me some ideas as to what to check, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for your time.
Jon

Watch out for this guy... he ripped me off!!

Hey, everybody. Some of you might remember me. I'm the guy who got his Talon stolen in San Diego... twice. Anyway, I just wanted to give everybody a heads up about a guy that ripped me off. It was right after the car was stolen the first time. I'd planned on buying the bare minimum number of parts to make my car driveable so that I could take it home to rebuild it. He contacted me and told me that he had what I needed. So, I decided to buy from him. Anyway, he ****ed around and didn't send the parts I needed, and eventually, as you all know, the car disappeared again. I contacted him, and told him that it was gone and that I wouldn't be needing the parts, so he agreed to give me my money back. That was nine months ago. Here I sit now, not having seen dollar one of my money.

I'm not trying to do a smear campaign here. I'm just trying to make sure that no one else gets burnt by this guy. There are a whole lot of people out there that you can buy parts from. I urge you to find someone else. I don't want anyone else to lose any of their hard-earned money. I'm an honest guy, and I can't stand to see someone take advantage of someone else. Here's all the information I have about the guy:

Name: Nate Van Vliet
Address: 3420 Quail Lake Rd Apt 350
Location: Colorado Springs CO 80906
Phone #: (719) 648-8879
email: metalball101@hotmail.com

As for a screen name, he usually goes by metalball or metalball101. He had me pay him through PayPal by sending payment to bottomlinesales@adelphia.net. You're probably thinking that I have an awful lot of information about the guy, considering that he ripped me off. People who cheat others don't usually give out a lot of information. Well, I didn't get this stuff from him. I got it from a few other people, but I was able to confirm that this was the same guy. If you still want to deal with the guy, so be it. I'm just making sure that everybody knows that he's not a good guy. It's pretty ****ty to rip off a guy that's already gotten his car jacked twice. That's just wrong. He'll get his, though... what goes around comes around.

By the way, I'm preparing a small claims case against him. I'm sure he'll dig that. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's the principal of the thing.

Thanks for reading.
Jon

P.S. I'm posting this on as many DSM sites as I can. Feel free to post it to a few more if you like.

My DSM is idling too high. Can you help?

Hey, guys. Ever since I put my car together after the theft, it's been idling too high. I had to put a different throttle body on her, so I figured it was just the BISS. I tried spinning that in, and it didn't help. I bottomed the screw out, and it still idled at around 1900 rpm's. I woulda thought that screwing it all the way in woulda killed it.

Anyway, before I jump into trying to diagnose this problem, I want to get as much background as possible. If I'm going to start searching, I want to search it all. So, I was wondering if you guys could tell me what to check. Can you guys list as many things as possible that control idle speed? That way, when I jump into it, I'll be able to check everything at the same time. I'd rather do it that way than check one thing, quit till later, check another thing, quit till later, and on and on. Ya catch my drift?

Anyway, if you guys can help me create a list of things to check to back my idle down, I'd appreciate it. By the way, I drive a 1991 Talon TSi FWD 2.0L Turbo.

Thanks
Jon

Update on JohnnyWadd's Stolen Car

Hey, guys. I know that some of you know about the continuing saga of Jon's stolen Talon. You may or may not have been following some of the threads I've been posting as I try to overcome this problem and that problem trying to get my car back on the road. Well, there has been some new developments that I'm pretty proud of that I want to share.

First off, let me give you a the 10 cent version of what happened, just in case you're unfamiliar. My car was stolen from outside my apartment complex in April when I was still in San Diego attending grad school. They broke in, popped the lock cylinder and drove it away. I got her back a few days later, but she'd been pillaged. Body damage was minimal, but the interior had been stripped. Someone was after parts for their car, they saw mine was in good shape, so they stole it. The engine compartment had been messed with a bit. A handful of things were taken out of there, but it was relatively intact, compared to the interior. They also jacked the obvious things, like the rims and tires, the stereo, and all of my tools.

That's not where the story ends, though. Six weeks later, I came outside and it was gone again. Apparently, these guys didn't get all of what they wanted and came back for it again. Funny thing is, it couldn't be driven away this time. I hadn't done anything to fix her, so they'd have had to bring in a tow truck or some sort of flatbed trailer to get her out. Pretty ballsy, if you ask me. They must've wanted her pretty bad. This time, she was gone over a month, and they stole some more of what they needed. If you're curious, I've got pictures.

So, I finally get my car back to Nebraska in late August. I decided to take a semester off to regroup. I wanted to put my car back together, and I knew that there was no way I could accomplish that before the fall semester started. Everyone told me I was crazy. They told me I'd be an idiot to put that car back together. They told me the smart play was to scrap it and get a new car to start fresh. I couldn't do that, though, for two reasons. First, I'm really attached to my car. I'm sure that on this site, I don't have to explain that. DSMers are almost invariably in love with their cars as much as I am with mine. Most regular people don't understand that. Especially not the chicks. Guys can relate a little more, but by and large, women don't seem to get as emotionally attached to their cars as men. Guess that has a lot to do with the idea that we wrench on 'em and they don't. The other reason I couldn't let go was strictly principal. I couldn't let those guys win. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I felt this obligation to resurrect my car as a big "f*ck you" to the jerk-offs who had the audacity to jack it in the first place.

So, anyway, it's been a constant chore for me over the past few months to get the logistics together to get my car back on the road. I had to find a parts car. Special thanks to Bud in Illinois for help with that. Finally gained access to one over 400 miles away. I rented a mini-van (which was painful in itself), and made the roadtrip to pillage what I needed from that thing. Got back here and got started. Over the past month or so, I've been picking and choosing parts from three different DSMs and diving in and out of the salvage yards, trying to get the best parts I can to put my car back together.

Well, I'm happy to say that all of my hard work has finally paid off. This weekend, I started my car for the first time in over seven months. I was so proud of her. She popped right off. It only took three five second burst from the starter to get her going. She didn't act at all like she was grumpy for not having been run in over half a year. In fact, it was the exact opposite. It was like she couldn't wait to get back on the road.

If you had any idea of what I've gone through, I think you'd be amazed. It's not over yet, but I'm getting there. The hard part is over, but there are still a few little things that need to be accomplished. Oh, and I've still got to buy new tools and a new stereo. That can wait, though. In the mean time, I've still got a few cosmetic things that I need to find. Plus, there are a few minor mechanical glitches that still need to be worked out. She sputters a touch when I kick the turbo in. I'm wondering if there's a boost leak. Plus, she's idling way too high, even when I turn the BISS all the way in. Vacuum leak, maybe? Still need a downpipe, too. Over time, I'll get all this worked out and she'll be just as good as ever.

I want to thank each and every one of you on this site for helping me with this. I couldn't have done any of this without the DSM community. You guys were really there for me in my hour of need and I appreciate it more than you could ever know. Like I said, though, we're not done yet. You'll be hearing from me for a little while longer. I'm sure as long as there are little things that need to be tweaked on that car, I'll be posting something somewhere.

Until then, take care, and thanks again, guys!!
Jon

Why don't I have any lights?!

Hey, guys. I feel like a dumbass because of all the technical help I've been seeking off of this site. Anyway, I'm in the process of reassembling my stolen car, and I keep running into little problems. The latest one has to do with the lights. For some reason, I don't have any. And I don't just mean the headlights. No foglights, no dashlights, no tail lights, no back-up lights... hell, even the little LED on the rear defog switch won't come on. I do have blinkers and brake lights, but that's it. Anybody got any idea where to start? I'm wondering if there is a relay or a fuse that runs all of this. Unfortunately, there are no lids to my fuse / relay boxes. If you know what to check, I'd be forever grateful.

Thanks
Jon