Cold Start and Shifting and Idle Problems

Hi

I've got a 2001 Accent GS, and it's having 3 problems.

1) Cold Start - On a cold start, the engine will chug / putter until i give
it some gas to rev the engine, then all is good. If i don't give it any gas,
it'll stall out. Once it's been started once, this problem is gone.

2) Shifting - When comming to a stop, the trans. will quickly shift up, then
down, for each gear as i slow down. Once i'm at a stop, the idle is
slightly higher (about 1100rpm instead of 800-900)

3) Idling - When the car is in neutral, the idle is higher then normal, but
varies. Again, if i give it some gas, and bring the rpm above 3k and let it
drop back down, it will go back to idling fine.

Now here's the weird part. All 3 of these things are completely intermittent.
They all happen at the same time, but the car can go days with no problems,
and some days, it does it all the time. Generally, all symptoms are present,
or all are gone. No middle ground.

I took it into a service center, they couldn't find anything. They said O2
was fine, fuel in and out was OK.
No fault codes where present. They couldn't explain the shifting problem.

This problem started all of a sudden. We has similar problems when we first
got it (shifting issues), and the O2 sensor was replaced at the dealer, and
it was Ok after that.

I'm lost for what this could be.

Dustin.

 

If you're out of warranty, you may wish to hang a throttle position sensor
and see if all your troubles disappear.

There are also technical service bulletins about reprogramming for poor
acceleration and stumble when cold.

 

Thanks for your reply!

It's a leased car, and i've been doing regular oil changes, but haven't done
the other yearly checkups. (So not sure about the waranty)
It's at the end of the lease though, and i'm trying to get this fixed before
i have to return it. (in 15 days)

I will look into a tps sensor, as it's easy and cheap to replace.

Any other thoughts are still welcome

Dustin.

 

The warranty is 5 years/60k miles in the U.S. But if it's a lease car
you're returning in a few days, I really wouldn't be that worried about
it. It doesn't sound like something terribly obvious is going on,
especially considering it's been looked at and nothing was found wrong.