GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have a 3 month old Vibe-ran great until about a month ago. Then started noticing VERY high revs on cold start-over 2000 rpms. The car actually accelerates on it's own (without gas pedal being touched) and the dealer cannot find anything wrong. (my car is automatic transmission) I am feeling very nervous driving-sometimes when you take your foot of the gas-the car continues at same speed without slowing at all!

Has it been obviously colder than normal since this problem has started? My Vibe seems to initially rev higher the colder it gets, but lasts less than a minute. It idle's normal after a few more minutes and the engine is warm. It's all normal if under these conditions. See links below.Do you put the vehicle into gear immediately after you start it up and go? If so, the engine is still going to try to get to optimal temperature as quickly and safely as possible. This may be the extra "push" you feel until everything is at normal temperature.Does this problem seem to go away after a little driving and the engine is warm?Also, here's a post on normal engine RPM's: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=1038and also one here: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=527

Mine rev at about 2k until the engine warm up. When hot, it rev at 900 on neutral. Seems to be normal, or most of us have this problem.

Did a little test awhile ago...Vehicle was outside... temp about 30 degrees (F), engine cold and was sitting there for a few hours.Started it up and waited about 10 seconds and pulled out of the driveway. I put the trans. into Drive and let off the brake and didn't give it gas.Being the engine was still freshly cold and the revs were high, but normal, the vehicle did accelerate from first to second and proceeded to accelerate a little more before I came to the stop sign.If this is something you were noticing, it's normal. If I were to do the same thing when the engine was warm, I would not accelerate like I did when cold, just a nice slow creep until I gave it some gas.Hope this helps.

Mine do the same too with only 200 km on odometer...But I think it's normal because my two other cars before do the same. When it's 0°C outside the engine can be cold enough to need some speed on warm-up... Imagine at -30°C !

I leave my car in park-warm up for 5 to 6 minutes (as per dealer advice!) and rev's MAY drop to 1600. The car often does not decelerate when at 60 kmh and you take your foot off the gas, maintains the same speed for quite some time. I have also had at least 2 occassions where the car has "bolted" forward at a stop sign when I removed my foot from the brake. Yesterday (about -7C) the car would shoot up to 2400 rpms on start-down to 1600 then back up to 2000.

Thanks for your test! The problem I am having is that even after running for 5 to 6 minutes to warm up-it only slows the revs to about 1600. I can drive without gas for blocks! (the dealer is investigating however-I think they realize it is a problem!)

From your description, it does seem like there is a problem. Maybe something with the idle speed?Let's hope your dealer is competent on resolving this issue for you. Please keep us informed as to your service and resolution.

Will keep you informed-apparently idle speed cannot be changed due to computer, but Engineering is working on the problem!

quote:Thanks for your test! The problem I am having is that even after running for 5 to 6 minutes to warm up-it only slows the revs to about 1600. I can drive without gas for blocks! (the dealer is investigating however-I think they realize it is a problem!)1600 rev semms to be high. Mine runs at 800-900 when hot. Looks like your idle is too high.

Lee: Did you enjoy the -19 C this a.m.? My car will idle at 2000 when cold and settle down to 8 or 900 rpm when warmed up. When I head home I will see how long it takes to warm up and slow down the revs.

Frosty-try letting warm up for a few minutes then put in drive-don't give gas and let me know if yours accelerates up to about 30 kmh without gas! let me know-I appreciate the test!

quote:Frosty-try letting warm up for a few minutes then put in drive-don't give gas and let me know if yours accelerates up to about 30 kmh without gas! let me know-I appreciate the test!I can tell you right now that I could definitely do that. The car will still be running at least 1600 rpm, I will have shift my manual gearbox to 3rd or 4th myself but it will idle along at 30 km/h no problem. My old honda would do the same thing until it warmed up, but the idle speed should be well under 1000 rpm in 3 or 4 minutes.

Lee: Are you getting sufficient heat? Can you take your mitts off after 15 minutes of driving?Something that hasn't bee discussed too much here is the wonderful dash vents. I direct mine on my hands on the steering wheel very nice Like I say it is very warm after 15 minutes of -15 C driving. Hope yours is too

Have you ever had your car "bolt" forward? I have had this happen about 3 times-rather alarming! First time I went into a truck trailer hitch at a stop sign when I took my foot off the brake when he started to turn ($2 grand in damage to my baby! ) 2nd time was at a red light when it turned green-I was in the middle of the intersection before I knew it!

quote:Have you ever had your car "bolt" forward?!No Bolting from "frosty", she is a standard shift so I decide when it is time to go My idle speeds are nothing like you describe. Is your temperature gauge swinging over 50 Celcius after 5 minutes or so? Mine is just about horizontal after 10-15 minutes and the car is getting comfortable inside. I wonder if your thermostat is stuck open. (help techy guys! Nova, admin where are you?)

Haven't really noticed-been too busy recording RPM's, and I don't drive it until it warms up for at least 5 minutes, but I will see next time.

My salesman told me to NOT drive until it warmed up for at least 5 minutes (which is contrary to everything I ever knew!) But the revs don't slow down any faster if I do drive it after 30 seconds or so. One accident was a bit of a scare, so I am being too cautious I guess!

quote:My salesman told me to NOT drive until it warmed up for at least 5 minutes You have to wait about 30-45 sec to be sure oil is pumped up to the engine, that's all.

Here is how my engine warmed up tonight [-15 C] 5:04:30 Started car put seat belt on 5:05 engine revs @ 1800 rpm engaged clutch with no throttle, car creeped away, shifted to 2nd and 3rd. car proceeds at 20 km/hr. Can't test fully too much traffic. 5:08 engine temp at 50 C point on gauge, heat starting to build, revs at idle at 1200 rpm. vents becoming luke warm 5:13 at home. engine temp 80 C. Vents pouring out nice warm air. Note I switch back and forth between vents/floor on recirculating and def/floor on fresh air until the car is warm, then I stay on fresh air.If your cars temp gauge doesn't come up, your car is going to rev at 2000 rpm. My theory is your thermostat is stuck open, circulating with your radiator. Good luck warming a car like that.

Ya Frosty and I talked about this earlier tonight. It's still a stab in the dark because it's all ways hard to say what's wrong with a vehicle when your not there to look at it, hear it, and see what it's doing but I'd check and see if the thermostat is stuck open. I'm really surprised though when they ran your codes that they didn't get a error code back. Hmm maybe they didn't run the codes. You should ask if they did or not. If they haven't this is something they should have done first. The ECM will mostly be picking up a temperature fluctuation and they'll be able to see if when they check the ECM.Is your check engine light on by chance?

My check engine light has come on a few times that I am aware of, and I believe the dealer did find something as they were contacted by Engineering to get my car back for "full diagnostic testing", and so far, we have heard nothing back. Probably a really flukey thing-but just my luck-it had to happen to my car!

Does your car get as warm as fast as mine, ie. fully warmed up, good heat from the vents in 8 minutes?

Yes-seems to be fine in this regard!

quote:Yes-seems to be fine in this regard!Beats me then. I was hoping it was something simple (because I am). Are you calling the dealer every 2nd day? I would be. Try 1-800-GM-DRIVE also. Good luck!
[Modified by Frosty, 9:44 AM 12/3/2002]

Well, still no news from my local service manager, so I have just sent off my first email to GM. Wish me luck!

Yes, I too have the high idle problem. Mine was new in Sept '02. After a cold start the tach reads 1900-2000 RPM for about 3-4 minutes. I do have heat by then. But I thought this to be excessive so I too went back to the dealer. They checked it out and even talked to one of the local Toyota dealers too. They couldn't find any fault codes so they contacted GM tech. GM tech told them 1800 RPM for 4 minutes was within spec. The reason is apparently for faster warmup. I wasn't happy with that but there wasn't much I could do about it. We even went out on the lot and started other Vibes and got the same result.Since that I had a morning (5 deg F) when I started the car and was scraping frost. The engine after about a minute started surging. It surged between 1700 and 2200 RPM at about one second intervals for about 30 seconds all by itself. I didn't know what to do. I tried hitting the excellerater to "kick it down" but no affect. It stopped after I started to drive away a minute later. Dealer couldn't help me there either.You would think that with the technology we have today that they could at least make a car idle correctly. I like the car but I'm a bit dissappointed. -ZXtra

quote:I tried hitting the excellerater to "kick it down" but no affect. -ZXtraToo bad Fuel injected cars don't have a throttle-kick mechanism to bump it off fast idle cam. Maybe some aftermarket tuner can come up with a PDA app. to hack into the ECM and override the warmup duration parameter.

My car does the same thing with the surging at higher revs. Same story here-the service dept has been advised that this is within specs, however Engineering has been investigating the problem. I too am not happy-my brakes squeak (I have to ride the brakes when I put the car in reverse) and I am worried about future problems with transmission, engine and brakes-probably after warranty)

Two months have past on this thread.....Tracey have you had any success with this issue? How is winter treating your Vibe?

Believe it or not-nothing new. I was last told that the District service manager is now handling the issue, and she has referred it to the engineers in the U.S. as well as Oshawa. She was supposed to be here in TBay the end of January-but I have not been notified. With the extreme cold, the car is plugged in overnight, but still revs very high-my brakes make an ugly squeal when I put in drive (because I have to ride the brake or it takes off). It often lunges into gear when I put in Drive. I guess I will have to start getting nasty.Here's a good one though! I got my nice servicing reminder for my 20,000 km check! I have only had the 5000 KM check done in December!!

Section 2 page 20 of the owners manual reads that your engine is ready to be driven in 10 seconds after it is running. If it is below 32 deg. let your engine warm up a "few minutes".(5 for me) Hope this helps Geno

Only dealer in town! No choice!

Almost 4 months now and no contact or resolve to my problem-it seemed better over the very cold winter, but the car was plugged in all the time and I think this helped with the self-acceleration. I will be calling (again!) the local service mgr-updates-if any-will follow

This is bull. We will get you fixed up. This is SO OBVIOUSLY a safety defect, if somebody at GM would pull their head out of their (removed), they might realize life doesn't have to stink. I'll get you in touch with my people.