So .. I'm not a mechanic and will try to ask this question the best that a city girl can.

My 2004, automatic, 110K miles, surges on cold start. The tach isn't moving/changing, but I can hear it. So I don't know if it's actually an idle problem or a fuel problem. It's intermittent, but is becoming more frequent. It lasts less than a minute and when I put it in gear, it goes away. No problems ever while in gear/driving.

I thought of putting some injector cleaner down the tank, but I'm generally wary of those kinds of products.

Ideas? Could the fuel pump be failing? Is this something that a mechanic could troubleshoot by checking the onboard computer?

thanks

 

I think that's pretty normal. Mine does the same thing. I think most vehicles idle a little higher when they're started cold for a minute or two. My motorcycles do the same thing.

 

My 07 idles higher when I first start it. You can see it on my tach though. It drops down after a few minutes. You can try running an injector cleaner through the tank. The Lucas stuff is pretty good and won't hurt anything.

You can also look into cleaning your throttle body and MAF sensor. Are you still running on the original spark plugs?

 

oh, it isn't that it's idling steadily higher - it's surging. Maybe the better word is pulsing. It's a wha-wha-wha. (OK, now I feel like I'm talking to Click and Clack. Grin.) But this pulsing is happening without the tach moving.

 

and yes, original plugs. What's an MAF sensor?