When i have my car in gear the idle goes way down to like 500 rpm and the dash lights flicker at night and the volt meter bounces back and fourth a bit. Why is that? It also had an issue with cutting out at around 4000 rpm could they be related? it died the other day and i finally got it restsarted after trying forever and a huge blue smoke came out. Was i burning oil? I'm really conused and would like my car to be working again correctly but everywhere i take it to says they an't find anything wrong with it. It has a slight backfire when revved to 3000 rpm in neutral also. When it first started happening it sounded as if the car was not getting fuel but over time it has gotten worse and worse and now it won't rev past 4000 rpm under load without dieing and refuseing to start till it has been about a half an hour. Also occasionally when it is sitting in neutral it will rev up to 900 rpm then return to 500 rpm but not always. it mostly idles at 500-650 rpm in park and 500 rpm in drive idleing very roughly with the volt meter bounceing a tad like the engine is deing. Can anyone help?

 

Sounds like your not getting enough spark, which is causing it not to burn all the fuel that is going through. Basicly your car is running really rich right now. Possibly sounds like your opti is on its way out. What year is your car. Check plugs, and wires, if that doesn't show anything, I'm sorry to say that your opti might be going out.

 

It's a 93 and i've already checked all that stuff. not sure on the opti though i'm pretty sure it's neve been replaced but i've been told by a mechanic freind that he can tell by looking at the plugs that it's getting spark consistently.

 

Hmm. I have the same problem minus the smoke and 4000 rpm miss, but my car idles rough too. It feels like its missfiring and the lights flicker at the same time the volt meter moves.

 

Alternator possibly???

Cody

 

Lt1's are very sinsitive to volts! It needs to get atleast 13.5 or that baby is gonna perform sorry! That would be the first thing I would do, slap a volt meter on that thing.

 

Mine will flicker quickly a few times on warm up. It happens as the electric smog pump does its thing. It will also run better after smog pumping is done.