my good friend has a 87 camaro and it has one problem with it. It seems that when it's cold it can't idle and stalls out but once it heats up a little bit it will run fine. When it's warm it idles at about 800. It will drive while cold but it won't idle so if you stop at a stop sign or somethin it will die.

anyone know what it could be? it's the V8 engine. thx.

 

[My car did the same thing that car is. Iwould have them check the IAC(idle air control) unit and have it cleaned good, but their is a lot of things that it could be, that is what it was on my 87 camaro.

 

Hey i had the same problem with my 87 Z28 i just fixed it yesterday Dec 29. If u look on your throttle where it pulls and pushes back you will see a screw that looks like it can go in and out to adjust the idle. theres a cap on the reverse side of it, u just have to punch it out. just adjust your idle and u should be fine, but only do it a little bit. thats what i did to fix it.

 

I guess that you could do that also. The set screw for the idle has that cap on it because it is already preset from the factory. That would fix the ideling problem but it probably won't fix the reason why it started to do that in the first place. I would still take the IAC unit out and have the part cleaned fairly good or just replace the part. The IAC unit might not even be what is causing the problem in the first place, there is alot of stuff that it could be.
If you have an aftermarket throttlebody it would be cool to adjust the idle by the idle screw, I had to adjust my throttle body idle screw when I put my BBK twin 52 throtle body on my car.

 

You cannot simply set it away and life will be good. This requires a little more than a screwdriver and a hammer. You need to clean out the ENTIRE TB unit. That means the blades, IAC housing, IAC and all the passages in the TB. Reassemble it and check for leaks with the car running and brake cleaner. Then you need to set the Throttle screw till your Scan Tool reads around 20 to 30 counts for IAC. then set your TPS. This is assuming you have no other problems and your timing is set at 6 deg.

 

You are 100% correct. there is things that you need to check when you screw with the idle, Take the throttle body apart and clean it and replace the gasket and use an ohm meter to set where it needs to be. I agree all the way, I just didn't get into detail about it, I fought with my throttle body for about 3 days to get it where it is now.

 

You are going to need a scantool for this. You can't get away with a DVOM and a couple of pins to check the TPS voltage. You need to read the idle counts so you know how far to set the Throttle Blades otherwise your idle will be unstable. It might be right this time and wrong next time. After setting the Throttle Blades and you get 20 - 30 counts for IAC, use the Scantool to get the TPS voltage right. I believe that for a 87, the TPS should be around 0.54 V. Also check with the motor off what voltage you get when you have someone gradually step on the gas. You are looking for a smooth voltage sweep till it gets to WOT. If not, replace the TPS.

 

i dunno i ran into this problem alot in my old 85 z28. i did 2 things that fixed the problem..i set the idle up and i also ran fuel injector cleaner through it 2 times and it fixed the problem. Try that if not you might wanna tell him to take it into a shop to get looked at it could be many things.

 

I had this prob on my 85 Iroc replacing the coolant sensor fixed the problem. Sometimes it trips a code sometimes it doesn't. When the coolant sensor goes out the ECM can't adjust the fuel mixture correctly to idle correctly. Great thing about the part is its only like $20 if its not sold out.

 

Those are all valid suggestions but until we get a scantool on the car, we are just guessing and replacing parts. If your part that is faulty is one of those mentioned, Great. If not, you will be changing parts till you get it by chance. GET A SCANTOOL.

 

I'm not sure if this would work with other Camaros it worked with my posessed 89 RS and my85 IROC though. The prev owner of my IROC gave me a little key that plugged into the interface under the dash. When plugged in it would flash the codes through the Service Engine light. I wonder if you just jump the two connectors if it would have the same effect. It plugged in at the first two connectors on the lower row. Does anyone else have much experience with this? Its been a little while.

 

That is just to retrieve the stored codes if you have a SES light on. It does not tell you what the ECM is reading at the time. For that you will need a scantool.