All,

I just bought my '97 Dakota 5.2 a few weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to drive it because I let my son and my wife use it and because I work so much. This morning I go to start it up for my wife and notice that after started it drops immediately into a very steady 700 RPM idle. It was probably about 35 degrees outside so I had expected it to rev a little high (somewhere between 1000 - 1200 RPM) like all of my other cars do. I figured it would do some sort of fast idle warm up. Even when I test drove it before I bought it, I noticed that there was no fast idle warm up. It just always idles at 700 RPM.

So, for the stupid question; Is it supposed to idle high while it warms up?

My 2008 Dodge Dakota would fast idle and slowly drop in RPM's over a period of about a minute or two. Same with my 2004 Hemi Durango as well as my wife's Sonata and my son's Elantra.

The truck has an original 74,000 miles on it.

 

i dont think they programmed the computers on the older dodges to detect the outside temp and adjust idle. The newer dakotas were programmed to dump more fuel into the engine when the temp was below 32 degrees or when it was cold(not sure about the exact #), therefore higher idleing.

Either that or your computer just isnt picking up that its "cold" outside!