I have a 98 Dodge Stratus with 85,000 miles on the engine. When idling, the rpm's flutter from 500-1000 and the oil light comes on. Once I get the rpms above 1000, everything is great. I have taken the car to 3 different shops. The only real answer I have gotten is that the engine is clogged somewhere with sludge and is causing the pressure flutter at idle. They say that the engine needs to be replaced. I think thats BS! Does anyone have a fix for this? I have flushed the hell out of it with the Gunk flush and it has not helped. Please Help!!!
Is my engine doomed???
- Thread starter the_spainter
- Start date
- Status
Auto-RX could be useful IMO.
Well if your idle does drop, then your oil pressure may follow and the oil light comes on....
No one can address the idle problem?
No one can address the idle problem?
Spainter, the erratic idle is probably caused by a dirty or faulty IAC (idle air controler). It will be located on the throttle body, and most are easily changed or cleaned.
Before replacing the IAC, try removing the air intake tube and cleaning the inside of the throttle body. Clean it where the throttle blade touches the throttle housing. There is usually a carbon buildup there, that restricts the idle airflow and causes the poor idle.
Before replacing the IAC, try removing the air intake tube and cleaning the inside of the throttle body. Clean it where the throttle blade touches the throttle housing. There is usually a carbon buildup there, that restricts the idle airflow and causes the poor idle.
I agree with TheLoneRanger. But what you can do is get a compressed can of throttle body cleaner, With the intake off so that you can see the throttle place. Rev the engine to 2500RPM and spray the plate. This will help clean the throttle plate also spray into the IAC sensor that will help get the carbon off there. With the engine taking in all this Cleaner it will also cleane the throttle body and valves, naturaly when you spray anything in the throttle body it hit's the valves and pistons. So the TB cleaner is good for this. Just MAKE SURE that your engine is running at 2500RPM because if it's running to slow and you dump to much cleaner in you can (HYDROLOCK your engine) This way when it's running at 2500RPM everything is running so fast that the cyl don't have time to fill up.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Make sure you actually get something marked "Throttle Plate Cleaner."
3M makes a good one.
Carb cleaner can strip the coatings off and cause O2 sensor contamination.
3M makes a good one.
Carb cleaner can strip the coatings off and cause O2 sensor contamination.
good time for a tune up as well =)
Above suggestions are excellent. Hook up a manual oil pressure gauge and see what it tells you. You could have nothing more than a bad sending unit causing your oil pressure issue. With an idle that erratic, it should set a code. Apparently some of the later model oil pressure gauges not true gauges and are set up so that we see what we expect to see, rather than the actual oil pressure, if there is a minimal amount of oil pressure; e.g. 9 psi or so. You don't see the actual oil pressure. If there is not a minimal amount of oil pressue, the oil light will come on. In late model Dodge diesel trucks the oil pressure gauge is basically programmed to show "customer expectations" if there is at least 9 psi (if I remember correctly). It appears to be a real oil pressure gauge but is basically nothing more than an idiot light. Very disappointing; there was a discussion of this on a Dodge/Cummins site and someone cited the factory manual.
- Status
