01bruce

Ok so I've had this problem for quite a while and still can't pinpoint it. On cold mornings when I start my car, I get some belt squeal for a few seconds and my steering slips for the first few seconds of travel. After the cars warms up it is usually good and warm days it rarely happens, except for the squeal once in a blue moon. Any thoughts on this? The belts are relatively new, not sure what else to check out. And I am clueless about the steering slip.



As for the rough idling...usually when I am idling, the tach. hovers at 800-900 rpm's and will occasionally blip down a bit to like 500, almost to the point of stalling on a few occasions. And if I turn on something, like say my rear defroster or windshield wipers or even if I operate my windows, it dips significantly to the same point. Any ideas on solving this? I really appreciate any help guys, thanks.



btw it is a 2001 Tibby, manual trans

Stocker

I have had a brand-stinking-new power steering belt (goodyear gatorback?) slip/squeal on my power steering. The PS belt has to be surprisingly tight to get it to be quiet, even with a good belt. It is worse on cold days because the hydraulic oil in the steering system is a bit thicker. This is a common problem usually solved by properly tightening or replacing the belt, or changing the PS fluid.



When is the last time you cleaned your throttle body and idle air bypass valve? That is the first thing that comes to mind at the moment for dipping-low idle.

01bruce

haven't cleaned the throttle body yet, I'll need to replace the gasket too right? and I may have changed my IAC valve already, but I'm not 100 % sure, I'll have to check that out...I will also check out my PS fluid and such...any thoughts on the electrical stuff causing my rpm's to dip?

wheel_of_steel

Another common one is splug leads earthing out to the spark plug holes, that can be checked easily enough.



Does the car drive okay other than the low idle?

2FastElantra

Clean ur iac valve and throttle body. Take a green scrub pad and scrub ur PS pulley. When u have a belt slipping ur pulley will glaze and cause a belt to slip. Clean ur TB and IAC valve Scrub the pulley and get a new belt and tighten it see how that works out for u.

Stocker

no need to remove throttle body to clean, just don't drown it in chemicals.

alice6

PS belt can slip on both pulleys, make sure the alternator belt is tight as well. i had a similar symptom with mine, only squeaked cold, and randomly i would lose power or the idle would drop low under electrical loads. i didn't catch it until i installed a voltage gauge. tightening the alt belt solved it for me.

01bruce

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, i'll see about hopefully getting to clean the throttle body and change or check the IAC valve this weekend. Where is the IAC located anyway? I'll make sure I check the belts too. I'm pretty sure I replaced the belts so I will just check their overall tightness and such, but is there anything else related to the distributor that could be causing this slipping and squeal?





yeah the car drives pretty okay on the normal, the shifting is not very smooth though...not sure what to do about that, any other suggestions guys?