I finally picked up my Talon at my mechanics Friday after it being there since I bought it 2 months ago....this was the first time I actually got to drive it. I had no problems with it when I picked it up so I decided to take it to work. I started it up after work and it fired up fine but it seams to be in some type of closed loop limp mode at idle. The idle goes up for ~2 sec then back down for ~2 sec then over and over. Meanwhile all the lights flicker like crazy (headlights, IP lights etc.). I drove it back home ~30km without it dying and the idle was still in this odd state. I fired it back-up Sunday morning and got the same thing so I decided to take it for a little snort...no problems and when I came back the idle went back to normal but the lights were still flickering.

Could the voltage regulator in the alternator be toast? The battery seams to charge up ok....

Also, I’m not sure if this is related but I’m getting poor power up over 4k rpm…..the boost is rock solid @ 9psi (Autometer guage)….as well as it smells rich when I giver a couple of WOT shots…..could this be that I’m not getting hot enough spark?

Thanks for the help

your rpms going up and down is somewhat "normal" for a talon of that age to do... your ISC is messing up... it does this after awhile...its quite common... (do a search, replace it)

about your lights flickering... does the flickering go away when the rpms increase? If so its your alternator.... or a poor ground... its not getting enough voltage at idle...

That's probably what it is... try that and get back to us.

I'll order a new ISC

The lights still flicker when at high rpms...no more, no less....so it's probably a bad ground somewhere....I've checked the two main ground ties to the chassis and they are nice and secure...any idea's of where to check next?

Thanks for the help

Andy, idle surge is what you are experiencing and it is not as simple as replacing the ISC plus they arent cheap. There is a FAQ on this here . There are some simple tests for battery, alt and charging which you can do yourself (outlined in the manual) or pay the $20-30 for crappy to do an AVR test so you are done with it.

The low idle could be the reason for some of your problems. Flickering dash lights are a sign that the alternator is on the way out. You may have several different problems so start scratching things off your list and do all the free/cheap stuff first.

Thanks Jerry

I didn't realize that the ISC cost so much

I think I'm going to start by simply removing the ISC when I get a good idle @ ~1000rpm and see what that does. I may play around with the BISS since I'm there.

I'll be having my mechanic do some charging system checks tomorrow.

I'll let you know what we find

I removed the ISC today when I had a decent 1000rpm idle and I had to turn out the BISS a bit to hold it there after restarting. Working excellent now!!!

My mechanic couldn't spend much time with the car today but he did throw the multimeter on and read 14.5V across the battery terminals.....he's not really convinced that the flickering lights are being caused by the alternator.....we'll see later this week when we dig into it more (scheduled in for Friday afternoon).

Thanks,

Andy

My question is why did your mechanic give the car to you in this condition in the first place? Did he not test the car?

I just took it My mechanic is a buddy of mine and he was running a little short on floor space so I just took it for a few days

Anyway, I've postponed my appointment until next week.