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Will not idle when eng. is cold

3K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  XJwheeler 
#1 ·
I went offroading last weekend and it started and ran great there and back, the next day I went out to start it and it would start up and die, the only way to keep it going was to give it gas. Once the eng. was warm it will start up fine. It is a 89 XJ with a 4.0L. I appreciate any help.
 
#3 ·
my 2000 was doing the same thing for a couple of days. I knew that my battery was weak, and i read that the PCM's act weird if they aren't getting enough power, even more so if you have a distributorless ignition (witch i do) i charged my battery overnight and it seemed to have fixed the problem.
 
#4 ·
I didn't have a chance yesterday to look at it, I drove it to work and it drove fine it is just when I started it up you would have to give it gas to keep it running. After a few minutes it would idle on its own. Thanks for the suggestions i'll reply when I find out what is going on.
 
#6 ·
my 2000 started acting up again... before it did the same as yours wouldent idle on its own until i drove it for a couple of mintues. but now my problem is the opposite of yours it will start up and idel fine until it gets around 160 degrees then it will idel down to around 250rpm and stall. Tonight i took off the Idle Control Valve and cleaned it and the throttle body, it was really hard to start up afterwards (witch it never is) but i think it might have fixed it. I havent drove it yet but it now idles at normal operating temp. I still suspect my weak battery to be contributing to the problem.
 
#8 ·
Agree with the Idle air
 
#9 ·
The IAC may just need to be cleaned. Be very careful with the little projection (Pintle) it can get bent quite easily. I use some brake cleaner and an old toothbrush. when you re-install it make sure it has no vacuum leaks around the sealing surface. Double check the wiring plugin too.
That should cure the bad idle when cold problems
 
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