Thread: Cold weather = No VVL again...

For your issue with the car staying at 3000-3500:

There is a cold idle screw under the VE throttle body which may need to be adjusted. It has a 8mm nut with a allen head adjustment. It usually has to be turned in.

i have a few extras layin around but i'll prolly get a new one from greg.. but ya that totaly makes sense as far as the warm up issues go, not to mention it would be nice to jump in an in 5 mins be ready to drive.. instead of like 15 mins..

2 additions based on todays investigation-

My cold idle was so high because some how the adjustment screw piece was bent. Not even making contact with the plunger. Problem solved on that one.


Now onto the situation him and I both have. I was messing with the AICV today checking my wiring etc. Didnt take it off to clean it, going to do that tomorrow. Not sure I need to considering the following-

I raised my idle air screw back, increasing my idle and disconnected the brown plug from the AICV. Idle bounced for a second then stabilized. Once it stabilized it was smoother and once adjusted, actually went to where its supposed to based on my setting of 750-800rpm idle. Once i plug the sensor back in, the idle bounces like crazy between 500-2000 for a second, stabilizes and goes back to a minimum of 900rpms. Even if i take the adjustment screw all the way in. No more than 3 weeks ago my idle was set solid and steady at 750. No bounce, constant 750.

What could have went wrong between then and now? Bad AICV valve? Temp sensor die again (will be the 2nd CTS if so), vacuum problem maybe?


Also I didnt even think to check the thermostat. I forgot that i had to swap it over onto my VE when i bought it. For some reason i thought it wasnt that old. Ill check it out tomorrow as well. Also I think my msd 8969 could be another target of investigation. Im seeing lots of people saying that it has problems activating the solenoids if its not grounded directly to the battery. Any thoughts?

i can unplug the purple and brown plug an nothing changes with my engine, i can also remove the tps plug an nothin happens. even if they're all unplugged nothin happens. when i first hooked up my ve my iacv wiring wasnt workin, i messed the plug up some how so switched to another plug an it stopped doing what it was doing.. it was basicly causing the engine to idle at like 2500 rpms but since i swapped plugs it hasnt done it since but yet nothin happens when i unplug that stuff so idk? maybe if i did it while the engine was cold it would do something, i think the engine was warm when i disconnected them before..

so far now that i let my car warm up properly the vvl has been fine. still gonna change the thermostat tho.

Did you unplug your TPS to reset the idle? You probably know this already but putting your car in timing mode, ie rev 2-3X @ 2-3K, turn off engine, d/c TPS & start motor then adjust idle. Nothing new but if you don't reset the TPS after each idle adjustment that could give you problems. On your 8969 try grounding to the battery anyway just for peace of mind knowing that the ground is as good as it gets. If you still have issues with cam switching it won't be the ground, just something else.