Suzuki Sidekick won't idle when hot?

hunterdan

hunterdan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Location
Morganton,NC
Just picked up a 97 Suzuki Sidekick. It has 100K and is the 1.6 16V. It runs great down the road and idles right at 800rpm when cool. After about 20 minutes of driving it has to be feathered or it will sputter and die.

I can't find any vacuum leaks and it has fresh plugs,filters...

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dan
 
It has the distributor. Runs great even when hot...just will not idle. The coolant is full and it stays in the middle of the gauge when up to temp.
I had one of these years ago with similar problem. It was a bad fuel pump. It was different than this one though because once it got hot it would not crank until cool. If the current one stalls out then it will crank right back up. When cold it will crank on first try where my one with bad fuel pump always needed two cranks at least
 
Check the coolant temp sensor, the sensor for the ECU and not the sending unit for the temp gauge. Sometimes there is only one sensor, but that's generally if the gauges get their signals from the ECU instead of a dedicated sending unit. I've never felt the urge to work on a Suzuki so I don't know what they have, but it's worth a look. If the coolant temp sensor is bad, the ECU is giving the engine the wrong fueling correction based on perceived engine temperature.
 
OK, I cleaned the temp sensor for the gauge and the sensor for the computer. Both were pretty dirty and one had corrosion. I also replaced the pcv valve which was pretty nasty. I also got sick of hearing a belt that was whining so I changed it. When taking off the old alternator belt I noticed it was very worn (even splitting in places) and a bit loose. Now that I have a new belt the whinning has stopped and it seems to idle better after getting hot and sitting at lights...

Could the worn/loose alternator belt have been the main problem...causing it to stall at idle speeds when hot?

Thanks, Dan
 
It could if the belt was slipping and letting the current draw run the battery down to the point where ignition system quit. Of course you would then also have problems starting it back add the battery would be low.
 
Back
Top