Hi from chilly Canada. I'm hoping someone can ease my mind a bit about my 2005 AWD auto Vibe. I find that when I start my car and put it in drive I don't have to put my foot on the accelerator, the car picks up speed to about 25 kms, even on a flat road. Same when I put car into reverse, I have to keep my foot on the brake otherwise the car just takes off in reverse. I had the car at the dealership and of course they said it is the same for all vibes - somehow don't believe them. Does any good expert on this site (and from reading all the messages - there are a lot of experts which is great) have had any similar problems?
I have a 2005 XR AWD Matrix and can tell you that when cold, you fire up the engine and it sits at close to 2,000 rpms. Once it warms up the rpms go back to normal idle speed. You could have the idle set very high on the car, cause even when you put it in D the idles will still be high and the car can roll pretty good on it's own due to this.The car is not warmed up yet but still driveable. Driving it normally actually helps it warmup faster than sitting at high idle for a few minutes. You may also notice that for a few miles the car will not shift out of 2nd gear. You could be doing 50mph (80kmph?) and still be in 2nd gear, this is the transmission not letting you shift cause it has not warmed up yet. Nice safety feature if you ask me.
My 05 Vibe is doing the exact same when it's cold, even during summer it's will rev at 2000rpm for a few seconds then go back to 750-800rpm.The rev should go down to about 1200rpm when you put your transmission on D when the engine is still coldYou should also notice that you can't rev up the engine more than 4000rpm until it picks up some heat. This is to protect the engine against extreme temperature changes.