My car is an 05 with about 43000 miles. I just did an oil change less than a month ago. I also had a new engine put in about 3 months or so ago.

The past couple days the temp here has been in the 20s if not lower. Keep in mind my car has only been acting what I'm about to describe to you since it has been this cold.

I got in my car yesterday, and it took about 4 or 5 seconds to start. When it did start, the idle was real rough and it moved around a lot, from 2000 to 1500 and everything in between. As it was doing that, it made a rattling noise almost like a baby rattle for a minute or so. After about 2 or 3 minutes of all that, she is fine. Any idea what is going on? Thanks!

 

the idle hunt is normal espically when really cold. as far as the rattle search for miac. marbles in a can thread

 

Cold idle threads are popping up everywhere with the lower than normal cold across much of the US.

A small amount of idle hunting or a super high idle is normal when the engine is bone cold. It will stabilize and drop to normal idle levels as it warms up.

 

Thanks!

 

It also shakes badly, is that normal along with the idle hunting?

 

If the heavy shaking goes away more as the car warms up, then it's just the rubber motor mounts being REALLY stiff from the cold, and they soften up as the engine heat warms them up.

 

Ok now I know, just have to look up on the rattling noise now. She is fine once she warms up. Anything else I should know and/or you can recommend to me to prepare my car for this frigid weather we have ahead of us? Aside from staying on top of the oil of course.

 

Not really. Just the normal car things. Takes longer to warm up, battery has a lower charge, etc...

 

hi, it has been snowing in uk for past week(temp has been -6) and never turned on my car for 4 days
turned it on started straight away but once it was warm the idle would hunt from 720rpm - 770rpm
cleaned the maf sensor, checked vfad all clean, any ideas?

 

This isn't really on topic since your idle shift is when warm, but it's possibly a vacuum leak. 50rpm isn't a big deal to worry about, but a cycling lean/rich from a vacuum leak could make it do that.

Could be a number of other things too though.

Somewhat off topic here.

 

Awesome thanks! Oh and you were correct when you said a new motor should take care of all the problems I had. But of course, I'm sure you knew you were right . Thanks again.

 

No problem

 

Do you have a manual transmission or an automatic. This thread was just posted recently, click on the link: Cold Start Engine Reving Itself