Every morning, the first few minutes my car is on is a little strange. This is the time when the idle is higher as the car warms up.

It takes more force applied to the brakes to get the car to stop. It's like the car is still pulling even when I'm not on the gas -- it still wants to keep moving at idle.

There's nothing wrong with my throttle cable...it's not too short, or catching on anything.

Is there something wrong with my transmission? Is my torque converter not disengaging? Is something about my idle messed up?

Thanks

 

I switched from drum brakes to disk and my car also does that when it is cold and idleing high. Probally cause I haven't switch prop. valves yet. Not sure what your problem is, but it might be something with the brakes

 

Does the problem go away once the car has warmed up? Have you considered looking your IAC valve? Could be an electrical problem. New ECM chip in the car? Can you provide any details regarding your mods? How about your temp sending unit? etc etc? How about vacuum lines? are they all tight, attached, not cracked - a vacuum leak could cause high idle problems as well-Andrew

 

can you explain why you think it might be the IAC? I thought it just regulated air flow at idle -- why would more or less air by itself make the car pull harder?

 

Your engine operates on vacuum.... the IAC could possible be contirbuting to how much air your engine is sucking in. You mentioned that the car pulls even when stops - "It's like the car is still pulling even when I'm not on the gas -- it still wants to keep moving at idle." I take that to mean at idle?
Again you have not told us if the problem goes away when the car warms up...

 

well if its an auto it just makes sense that it would do that cause the faster the engine spins the more pressure its puting on the Convertor.

 

"Every morning, the first few minutes my car is on is a little strange. This is the time when the idle is higher as the car warms up."

The first few minutes..........goes away when it warms up.


Definitely. But why would that, by itself, make the car act like I was pressing on the gas?

 

Well if the engine idle increases due to let's say a vacuum leak, or a faulty IAC then isn't this what causes the car to accelerate (don't mean to sound disrespectful...) If there is one problem in the TBI system like a faulty IAC then to prevent the car from stalling wouldn't the ECM have to compensate for this added "air" and thus add fuel to the injectors etc?... During warm up ECM is in open loop mode this causes high idle to help warm the car up.
The way I am interpreting the problem triggers my memory with carbed engines that had their chokes engaged for the first few minutes.... The engine would be running at a higher RPM, so while comming to a stop, you would require extra brake pedal force to keep the car from "crawling" foward.... Once the choke was disengaged - the symptoms that you are describing would go away...

 

I was under the impression that the car ran off of given fuel tables on startup in open loop and didn't take signals from any of the sensors?

 

From what I know about Open loop - the open loop program defines the engine operation where the fueling level is calculated by the ECM with only the input signals from the TPS sensor, from the coolant and or air temperature, and from either the MAP or MAF sensor. During idle conditions the ECM is always comparing actual engine RPM with the programmed desired RPM. Discrepencies between the the values results in the IAC being activated to increase or decrease the air around the throttle plate(s) until the desired engine speed is achieved. Once off idle the IAC has no affect on performance. You state that the problem is occuring at idle. Once the car warms up the ECM starts to read O2 counts, and engine temps....then the ECM triggers closed loop program. (I realize that there are variations here, but this is generally what happens) If your TPS is on the frits this can also potentially be contributing to your idle problem..
-Andrew (sorry about the long response)

 

I'm going to second this notion. My car does the same thing.

When the car is warmed up try hitting the gas with your left foot on the brake. The car will pull. Same idea behind idling higher when the engine is cold.

Keep in mind that the car will still 'pull' with the engine warmed up, you're just more used to it. It annoys the crap out of me because I normally drive manual.