Hi!

Im new to this forum, recently bought a Dodge Avenger -96.

I was lucky to find an Avenger with the Daytona Blue colour, really nice car, love Chrysler and Dodge, have had many of them =D

To the point..

I love the car and it works great, only 57k miles on it.

But sometimes I get the feeling that the rpm gets pretty low when stopping at stoplights, down around 300 rpm and then up to 500, this causes the tranny to upshift/downshift(?) a bit hard since the car almost dies, a bit annoying =(

I have bought a OBD2 reader on ebay and I am waiting for it to arive =)

Other things I have done is to change the airfilter, and I am about to change the sparkplugs, at least the 3 easier ones first.

Could this be because a bad fuel filter and/or O2-sensor?

Many thanks in advance, have a great summer, here the temperature is around 100 degrees!

 

Three main causes :
Dirty Intake tract

Bad EGR

Bad IAC

Clean the intake tract first
still bad idle block off EGR valve , if idle returns bad egr
remove the iac and clean it then try again , still bad idle replace IAC

 

Hi "bad venge" and thanks for your quick reply, much appreciated!

If I have understood it correctly, the intake tract is the big "metal-thing" above the three hidden sparkplugs? How will I get this loose, anything special to think about? How will I get this clean?

What do you mean by EGR valve and where is it? How do I clean it?

I do however know what the IAC is, its the Idle Air Control motor, I changed this on my Dodge Stratus but that didnt help for that car =(

As you can see I dont have the Haynes repair manual or any other manual =)

One more question if you could help me, I wonder when/how often I should maintain the transmission (oil change and filter change)? How many litres of oil do I need when I change the tranny-oil, I know it holds 8,9 liters but it gotta be less when just changing it, 4-5 liters maybe?

 

Yes the intake tract is the manifold above the hidden plugs.
To clean you can use seafoam or any other intake cleaner such as STP or even carb cleaner in a pinch follow the direction onthe can/bottle/spray

EGR=Exhaust gas recirculating valve it's located dead center on the rear of the manifold
remove the two bolts holding it on to the rear make a block off plate out of a soda can or other thin metal and reinstall it with the plate blocking flow. If the idle returns the EGR is bad allowing unmetered air into the intake

I'd highly recomend getting a manual as there is no substitute for it and likely there are no dodge dealer on every corner

http://www.allpar.com/fix/trans.html
tranny info unless you are getting a professional flush the entire tranny gets 11/12 quarts , 4/5 quarts are in the pan use only ATF+4 fluid

 

Hi again!

First of all, thank you! Second of all, your Dodge looks amazing! Very clean and sporty, hope mine will look 50% of that one day =D

I am going to take of the intake tract and EGR of my Chrysler Sebring today, since that car worked great with idling I will just replace the parts to my Dodge, if I will get them loose on the Sebring.

Could it also be the O2-sensor?

I am also going to change the spark plugs today..

 

I've never seen an o2 sensor cause bad idle

 

Thank you!

The reason I mentioned the O2-sensor is that my friends BMW idled when the O2-sensor was loose.

I am doing what you described, taking the intake tract of and EGR, but first Im testing on my Chrysler Sebring so I wont mess something up with the Dodge.

 

my car does that too. when you stop the idle drops pretty low and it gets rough. just for a split second, then rises back up to the normal spot right? thats what mine does, i just figured it was normal because most cars ive driven do this