So today I go out to let my car warm up this morning. Its about 5 degrees F outside and started a little slow but nothing out of the ordinary when its that cold, it did how ever shoot up to about 3krpms. When I released the clutch the RPMS shot up to over 3 thousand and would drop down to about 1k and shoot all the way back up over 3k. You could also hear the popping coming out of the exhaust which brought even more of a concern since this has never happened before. It continued doing that until i pressed the clutch in and it would idle fine at about 1.5k.

Released the clutch again and it just sounds like some kid just pressing the gas releasing the gas and pressing on again. Another thing I noticed to is when I pressed the clutch I heard a very light squeaking which i can only guess it was coming from somewhere in the transmission. Im sure someone will ask so Redline fluids are in for the tranny and diff.

Anyway, has anyone else had thins erattic behaviour on real cold starts in the morning???? What could it be from??? Or its nothing to worry about?

Maybe add a little more to the story is the previous night when i drove home I shot the car off it just got to the normal position. (short drive). Not sure if this has any cause but I would just like to hear some peoples input.

Thanks....

By the way after a few minutes the car is back down to its regular idleing.

 

I've not had the erratic idle but the squeaking may be related to one of the clutch switches in the footwell. I think that here's a TSB to replace the switch.

 

I saw the same thing many time when the temperature is above -20 celcius. I spoke to the tech at Mazda about this ( I have a really good dealer ) and he said that is normal when it is cold like that and dont rev more than 2.5k while the engine changes rev. I have no special fluid in my tranny and diff. Each time that happen, that during approximately 4 minutes.

 

normal to have it idle up and down like that, hmmmm i guess. An answer like that from a dealer always makes me nervous.

For example, "its normal to have oil on your air filter, thats the way the rotary is".

I was hoping for more of an explanation, but I am glad that I am not the only one with this behaviour.

 

Thanks for the info on the clutch, I will check that out. This is the first time that its ever happened so my first reaction is its due to the cold weather.

 

Mine did the same thing when it was really cold one morning, scared me a little as I was already walking back into my house and then I heard the exhaust popping. It went away after it warmed up, and hasn't done it since.

 

I have two friends whose same thing occurs when the weather is cold but I'm the only one with a RB intake with ram air. Just to explain why I really trust my dealer is because he is a friend of me. We are friendly from the school. Anyway, here in Quebec, I saw more than three 8 doing that in a mail parking.

 

Mine has done that too, it was -18C and howling wind (-33 with the windchill) and the car was outside at work not in my nice warm garage..
It revved up to 3000 and bounced up and down a few times, and ran hard.. it smoothed out after a few minutes, but has its little 'afterfire' and pops out smoke rings for me (very cool to watch when its cold and you can see them..).
Anyway, I was panicked about the revving, as I was just sitting there about to get out and have my cigarette while it idled as usual... my first real (Canadian) cold start.. and it appeared fine after.

I dont really trust the dealer either (I hear you on the air filter thing) which is why I joined this forum 7 months after bringing my girl home!
I would asume its normal, now I really feel that way after reading your post.

Happy winter driving!

 

mine wasnt to erratic but today mine jumped up to 4000 rpms. it was 9 degrees here my the city. but it didnt jump up and down like yours did, it just went up and a couple minutes later it settled down.

 

Larouche,

I am not going against your friends judgement but at times I just get a little skeptical with a dealer thats just answers it as being normal. But I thank you for commenting and verifying seeing this as an occurence with other 8's.

As for everyone else thanks for your input. I just wanted to make sure it wasnt anything more severe as something being frozen, not properly putting oil in engine or what ever else maybe the case.

 

Punksux,

No problem dude, we are here for that, trade information !!!!!!

 

 

Your having the coldest temps in the last 20 years up there, right? Take a vacation to Florida this week.

 

Mine does that on really cold mornings (less than 40 deg F)...when I do a cold start the needle jumps to around 2500 rpm (usually around 2000 on warmer mornings) then drops down to almost 1500 then jumps up again....finally settling down just over 1500. This is after about a 10-15 second warm-up on idle. I do hear a lil' dull popping sound in the duration but it doesn't seem to indicate anything bad. Car runs just fine for me.

 

I would love to take some vacation. As of right now I am just trying to finish up on my degree and start my new job soon. Another month to go woo hoo.

 

My car does that also but my idle was extremely weird in just reving it up then just let drop and rev it up again. It was doing this consistently for about 4 minutes. I wasnt sure if I should let it keep going to warm up or if i should just shut it off. And everyone knows what can happen when the car is shut off before warming up

 

mine does the same if i let it sit for a week or two in super cold weather. it can't be any more that extremely cold fuel, and to keep the engine from stallin it'll dump more fuel in, thus the constant rpm jump. as long as it settle's once the engine is warm you should be fine.

Also you might notice the brake light on for cold days too (even though the brake fluid level is fine), that light as well will shut off once the car is warm.

Also Also the tire light might light up (cold air, less density in the tires), so basically all kinds of **** will light up of some of the brutally cold days, just let her warm up, go easy it'll fully warm, and see if it corrects itself.

 

Mine decided on start up to jump right to 3.5k rpm's. Needless to say it woke my *** on up and most likely my neighbors lol. I was scared for a moment but chaulked it up to the cold weather (4 degree's amb according to the readout.). After 5min's of warming up it went back down to around 1.5k rpm's. I think the ECU is trying to warm the engine up within a set amount of time and the only way to do that is to rev the engine at that level.

 

 

Same behavior here.. with rb intake and duct. I do think it's just the engine warming itself up.. it warms up a lot faster by short bursts of throttle rather than holding it at a set rpm.

 

i get that every now and then... and i noticed that if i put the clutch in it works fine... i think it might be a neutral switch that is sticking a bit when cold..

just a guess..

beers