rough idle on 01 2.4

[Davestone]

Howdy,with the help of a mechanic friend,and i'm not bad myself,i have just replaced the timing belt,water pump,drive belts,and plugs.Car ran fine but wanted to do maintenance for my son the owner.When the car was first started it had a very rough idle, and unburned gas out the exhaust.Runs fine at speed.We know the timing was correctly done, and everything re-attached correctly.The day before i replaced high and low fan relays,and temerature sensor.Champion platinum plugs .050 gap...we did a compression test on all cylinders 210 and holding,triple checked all connections,check engine light now on will get codes tommorrow....any ideas what gives?

[lakersfan1]

I haven't done a PT tuneup yet, but I've never had a car that took .050 gaps. .045 is usually tops. But that's probably not it.

First thing that comes to mind is if you took off any timing sensors like the crank or cam position sensors to gain access anywhere?

Second, a tuneup I did last year yielded pretty similar results. Person at Autozone suggested a bad sparkplug ..... a bad BRAND NEW sparkplug. Swapped for another 4 spark plugs, and low and behold it started right up.

Best thing though is find the procedure on the archives here about how to pull error codes in your dash. If the code is timing related, check, double, and triple check the appropriate sensor's connection. If it's a spark code, change out the plugs AGAIN for different ones.

[Davestone]

Thanx,it seems there is a real problem with plugs on these pt's,they must be sensitive.The hood said .050,but they came gapped at .040.We regapped and no it didn't change anything.I might add this is serious gas dumping,and we have checked every connector and even pulled them and checked the pins.I'll be getting the codes today, i really don't wanna tear it down to check the timing, that was a nightmare,and p.s. i wouldn't try changing the timing belt alone, get help, you cannot get that engine in the right angle to get the brackets off by yourself!

[Hooligan]

A new TBS recommends plug gap at .040. I had a 2002, the hood sticker said .050, but reading on this Forum, I found that it should be .040. Good Luck!!! I noticed that you did not mention new plug wires. Wires are the major problem on these PT's!!!

[tpscruiser]

Hooligan covered it! Gap those plugs at .040" per the TSB AND get new plug wires. I bet just disturbing the wires to change the plugs finished them off.
Mopar Preformance wires are about $50. I would recommend Crane wires from Maggie at http://www.raceandstreet.com but they are on national backorder.

[Davestone]

Thanx, hard as it is to admit the timing was off,just a tooth.Much easier to disassemble today after the practice run,haha.Didn't tpuch the plugs or wires,but it runs smooth.Now, when we did the test run (we did not recharge the a/c yet)it overheated,we were very bummed since we had just redid the entire cooling system,high and low fan relays,water pump,flush,temperature switch,thermostat and such.I decided maybe we should recharge a/c,maybe it was sending wrong message to the computer,we did and it was.Everthing is fine now, hope this helps someone,what a rough three days.

[quicksilverdon]

Think how much money you saved, and many have had dealers turn it over to them off a tooth!

I suspect your overheating may have been air in the system - many have lost A/C and had no overheating.

[lakersfan1]

The first time I did a timing belt I was dead certain it was spot on. I think by the time you get to setting the timing you're just so tired and frustrated you don't take the time to rotate the crank 720 to recheck your marks.

[Davestone]

You might be right about the air, but we did bleed it and did the a/c at the same time so i'm not sure what it was.And you are also right about bein too tired to turn it over....we forgot to tighten the alt. belt and i had to fix that on the side of the road this morning!!!!