Tech, Repairs, Upgrades > Capri N/A 89-94

Idle Issue Upon Cold Start-Up

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1991---Capri---AT--NonTurbo:
For the past month or so my Capri has exhibited odd idle behavior, though only upon initial cold start-up like in the mornings. Here's what it does:

The car is cranked up and it immediately "stutters" and stumbles (like it's only running on 3 Cylinders) then shuts off. It's then cranked back up, at which time it will idle high softly up to 3,000RPMs then softly float back down to 1,000RPMs and stutter a little while around 900-1,000RPM then gently float back up to 3,000RPMs then softly come back down to ~1,000RPMs, back and forth etc. etc. until it finally settles smoothly at about a 1,000RPM idle. The exhaust note, after warm-up, etc. around 1,000RPMs sounds a bit "gurgly" or "throatish." It once sounded that way years ago and a new set of plugs took care of the problem. The car does not smoke at all when it "acts up" like this. Once the car is warm it idles fine and drives great...exhaust sounds really cool and "throaty" though...like an old Jag "gurgle." Normally it sounds very lame and uncool like a Honda Civic etc.

The thing is, I'm stumped...within the last 500 miles, as regular maintenance, I've replaced the following parts:

-Fuel Filter (Made in Japan)
-Air Filter (CarQuest)
-Battery (CarQuest 60 Made in USA)
-Distributor Cap and Rotor (Both Made in Japan)
-Sparkplugs (NGK BKR6ES-11)
-Valve Cover Gasket/Grommets (Made in Japan)

Any ideas?

The plug wires do not seem to be damaged anywhere...they pass the "water spray" test, etc. and conduct fine. Think I should replace them? If so, what's the highest quality source/brand? I don't like playing the game "let's replace everything and see"...I like to diagnose and pinpoint the problem, then replace the problem.

Anybody out there ever experienced something along these lines at the 159,000 mile mark?

The distributor was replaced at ~115,000 miles.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

spiro:
On cold start up mine idles between 2500 - 3000 and slowly comes down after 5 minutes or so just like yours.
I think that might be normal for them. Some sort of warming up procedure in the ecu or thermostat or thermo setting etc, not sure, which quite frankly shits me.

When I get the ECU changed on mine I want to make it so that when you cold-start it sits on 800-1000 revs straight away, and stays there.

 I dont know what is causing your stuttering or idle fluctuation up / down though...

D22A:
my works 1700 RPM and gos  down
and when you changing from P to R   Rpms going to 500????????? hot engine???

Slocs:
Spiro, mine starts and idles normally straight away - that said it's not really a cold start given the temps that we experience here in Sydney.

Rgds

Rob

spiro:
hmmm, interesting... yeah I always thought that was strange, although I do recall when I used to have a Suzuki Sierra JX 1.3, which was carby, it use to do it also.... but alas, I am going to get rid of it one way or another... soon...  
prior to this car I had a 2000 Festiva B5 Engine EFI. Beautiful starts, perfect idle everytime. Wish the capri was like that... My capri acts more like a carby instead of an EFI car. Runs good, but not as "crisp" and "fine" as I would like it..

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