My check engine light has been coming on lately when I start the car in the morning. If the engine's cold, the cel will come on and the idle will fluctuate between 1000-2000rpm for a while. Once it warms up, the idle drops but it still goes up and down. When driving, the car surges with steady throttle.

What's wierd though is if I turn the car off and on again once its warmed up, the problem goes away but the cel stays. If I just let it warm up but don't turn the car off and on, the problem stays.

The car is absolutely bone stock, not even a K&N drop-in.

I've tried to get the code pulled but our Autozone equivalent here: Canadian Tire, wants $70 for it!!!

btw, its a 2000 Outback Sport, 5 spd, bone stock...

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

 

could be a plugged iac, take the huge hose that runs from the intake arm to a modual thing under the throttle body, off while the engine is running, (you'll hafta use the throttle to keep it running, and spray a TON of throttle body cleaner in it, shut it off, plug the hose back in and drive it

 

Mine does this also - 2001 2.5RS. ONLY on a cold start. I can start it all day long and no CEL, but on a dead cold start, if I let it idle for a while - I get a CEL - which is always misfire on cyl 4 and sometimes cyl 2 as well. If I drive immediately it doesn't happen. I attributed it to my lightweight Exedy flywheel that was installed (CELs started about a week after that). Not totally sure. I bought "Car-Code" which is a PC based system including a cable to connect to the OBD-II port that allows me to read and clear codes as well as read sensor info realtime.

 

ok, I really don't understand this...I took the whole iac out and cleaned it out. it had a little carbon buildup but not too bad. I put it back in and its STLL doing the same thing! Does anyone have any idea what else this could be?

 

It could be anything pretty much. Anything temp related/based. You really gotta get the code pulled, or you will keep on guessing. It could be a million things.

 

oh, I forgot to mention, I did get the code pulled: 0505 Idle system malfunction...

what else can this be?!?!? its killing me that I just bought a car and its already messed up!