Last night was the coldest that we've had the mustang so far. There was a frost warning and the temperature probably dropped down below freezing. I was late getting out the door to class and so ran outside got in the car and turned it on (unfortunately I have to park outside). I backed the car out and without thinking (since I was in a hurry) didn't break and caught the car in first gear(I am aware this is stupid). I did the same thing I usually did (gas, clutch) but this time it stalled. When I restarted the engine, it did not want to start and idled very hard at about 500rpms for about 30 seconds until it then revved up to about a hard 1100 rpms. As I drove onto school the car continued to idle at about 1100 rpms. It usually idles about 800rpms (what it looks like to me at least). Then, after about ten minutes I was sitting in traffic and put the stick in the neutral position and let the clutch back out and the car begin revving down to 500rpms and then bouncing back up to 900rpms or so and then back to 500. It also did this when I had the clutch on the floor and stick in first. During this second issue I was not inadvertently touching the gas (I made a point of checking). This settled down some after a couple more minutes. Then I went to one class and after the class drove back. I had the same bouncing of the idle revs, but not as noticable, even though the car heated up right away.

Is this an issue with the car, or is this just caused by the cold? Should I get this checked out? Can I avoid this by turning the car on and letting it warm up a couple of minutes before I leave?

I don't know a ton about all of this, and any information would be great.

Thank you in advance.

Also, any suggestions/thoughts for driving with stock tires in the snow?

Thank you again.

 

any ideas?, some1 suggested that it may have been bad gas?
anyone?

 

Your car's computer regulates fuel/spark/knock vs. ambient temperatures. If you put the car away when it was warm outside and the temperature dipped 15 or more degrees then you can reset the last known temperature value in the computer by doing a WOT... granted I would let the car warm up first.


P.S. snow driving is why we got such skinny tires as stock rubber. This car was tested and set up to be "better" in the snow than past models...

 

When I start mine up after it's been sitting for a while and is nice and cold, it screams at about 2100 RPM's for a good minute before backing down under 1000. Not sure if this is normal, but a friend commented on the high idle last week.

 

any other thoughts?