Very Low Idle, Temp/Tach Gauges Malfunctioning
11-29-2012, 09:01 AM
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Very Low Idle, Temp/Tach Gauges Malfunctioning
Guys, your help on this forum has never steered me wrong and I'm always grateful for what you teach me. I am in a pretty major situation as my DD is not in a happy state and my work requires me to drive quite a bit. Please help me diagnose and troubleshoot the problem(s), or perhaps point me to the right thread.
For the last year, the truck has occasionally idled low seemingly at random, but not at all very badly. Other issues include: a slight clacking sound from engine (i figured valve adjustment needed) when the idle is low, a leaky oil pan gasket, heater working intermittently. That's basically all that was wrong with it.
2 weeks ago, my speedo cable came loose from my stock gauges, so I put in an sr5 cluster. OPS unplugged for the time being, FYI. At first, the tach wouldn't respond at all, then for some reason after pulling all the plugs behind the cluster and re-seating them, it works just fine.
Truck is driving fine afterwards. I can actually see when it is idling normally around 750 and see that when it gets rough it's dipping to 500 or lower. But over the last two weeks, the idle has kept dropping ever so slightly. The voltage meter is bouncing a little on the high side when this happens. It's fine at freeway speeds, but at a stop you can feel the low vibrations. Also the clacking is a bit more obvious.
Finally yesterday while it was raining, the tach craps out again AND also the temp gauge peaks and stays in the red as soon as the key is turned to the "accessory position." Idle becomes rougher, but it's not actually overheating as far as I can tell.
I read in this forum that some basic checks in similar situations were spark plugs and also ground wire for the gauges. As I was pulling my plugs to check them (they were a little grimey but not awful) I break a wire so I replace all the plugs and wires last night. I also topped off the oil and the coolant. I think I cross threaded a plug, too.
With the engine still warm from my drive home last night, I try to start truck again: gauges are still messed up, and it is idling ROUGHER THAN EVER. The poor girl was shuddering!
I thought maybe I might have done the wires in the wrong order, so this morning I double check and they are fine. I figure I'll try to start the truck one more time just to see. When it's cold: it sounds fine, tach is still dead, and temp gauge appears to be working. But after just a couple of minutes warming up, sure enough the rough idle returns, and I watched as the temp gauge needle shoot all the way to red again.
Regarding the cluster ground: I checked the ground last night in the driver side kick panel, and got a bit confused. There is a black with white stripe wire which is just dangling back there, so I strip it and attach it to the frame, which doesn't help anything. There's also a white with black stripe wire that is running along the door sill and into a long white plastic housing also under the door sill. I have no idea what this is and didn't pull it all the way out.
So that's my situation right now. It could be one problem, it might be several. Let me know if you need more information. Thanks again for being an awesome forum and I hope y'all can help!
-D
For the last year, the truck has occasionally idled low seemingly at random, but not at all very badly. Other issues include: a slight clacking sound from engine (i figured valve adjustment needed) when the idle is low, a leaky oil pan gasket, heater working intermittently. That's basically all that was wrong with it.
2 weeks ago, my speedo cable came loose from my stock gauges, so I put in an sr5 cluster. OPS unplugged for the time being, FYI. At first, the tach wouldn't respond at all, then for some reason after pulling all the plugs behind the cluster and re-seating them, it works just fine.
Truck is driving fine afterwards. I can actually see when it is idling normally around 750 and see that when it gets rough it's dipping to 500 or lower. But over the last two weeks, the idle has kept dropping ever so slightly. The voltage meter is bouncing a little on the high side when this happens. It's fine at freeway speeds, but at a stop you can feel the low vibrations. Also the clacking is a bit more obvious.
Finally yesterday while it was raining, the tach craps out again AND also the temp gauge peaks and stays in the red as soon as the key is turned to the "accessory position." Idle becomes rougher, but it's not actually overheating as far as I can tell.
I read in this forum that some basic checks in similar situations were spark plugs and also ground wire for the gauges. As I was pulling my plugs to check them (they were a little grimey but not awful) I break a wire so I replace all the plugs and wires last night. I also topped off the oil and the coolant. I think I cross threaded a plug, too.
With the engine still warm from my drive home last night, I try to start truck again: gauges are still messed up, and it is idling ROUGHER THAN EVER. The poor girl was shuddering!
I thought maybe I might have done the wires in the wrong order, so this morning I double check and they are fine. I figure I'll try to start the truck one more time just to see. When it's cold: it sounds fine, tach is still dead, and temp gauge appears to be working. But after just a couple of minutes warming up, sure enough the rough idle returns, and I watched as the temp gauge needle shoot all the way to red again.
Regarding the cluster ground: I checked the ground last night in the driver side kick panel, and got a bit confused. There is a black with white stripe wire which is just dangling back there, so I strip it and attach it to the frame, which doesn't help anything. There's also a white with black stripe wire that is running along the door sill and into a long white plastic housing also under the door sill. I have no idea what this is and didn't pull it all the way out.
So that's my situation right now. It could be one problem, it might be several. Let me know if you need more information. Thanks again for being an awesome forum and I hope y'all can help!
-D
11-29-2012, 04:19 PM
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Some updates:
I just started it back up, and it was mostly the same as this morning;
I am uploading videos to youtube right now... more to come.
I just started it back up, and it was mostly the same as this morning;
- gauge cluster ground wire is in place, i just couldn't see it very well with my flashlight last night. still don't know what the wire in the white housing under the door sill is for though.
- temp gauge needle at 0 for first couple of minutes, then quickly sweeps up to red where it stays
- starts off sounding good, but starts idling lower and rougher when warmed up. however it wasn't quite as rough as before
- there is a high pitched metallic ringing sound once it's warmed up. I hadn't noticed that before, but it's pretty loud.
I am uploading videos to youtube right now... more to come.
11-30-2012, 09:00 AM
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Here are a couple of videos... I am not sure how helpful they will be in assessing my situation. I'm thinking I am going to try checking out the TPS and IACV this weekend to see if that has anything to do with the idle problem...
This is from a cold start...
This is from a cold start...
Last edited by mindsore; 11-30-2012 at 09:01 AM.
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