Expert: Roland Finston - 8/13/2011

Question
i have a 95 plymouth voyager 2.5l auto. when i got it the idle was very high but the car was reliable. one day it just died took it in. had timing bely replaced for over 400 dollars now car wont idle in park drive anything. mechanic says that it isnt related to the work he did so he isnt liable. curious if it is a simple fix or if the mechanic should fix it. or neither. i just bought this van for work and need a reliable vehicle or im gonna lose all my business.(im a local contractor/ handyman)ive already lost serious money not working and paying someone else to fix it. really need the quickest and easiest solution thanx.

Answer
Hi Paul,
I would try this first: use the ignition key to get fault codes:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on, doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, Then repeat the process to be sure of having an accurate set of flash counts. Let me know the counts in order of appearance.
You might also want to check the ignition timing if you can get a helper to maintain the idle at around 800 rpm while you use a timing light on slot at the top of the bell housing between the engine and the transmission. It should be about 12 degrees before TDC with the coolant tamp sensor unplugged (ir iamounted on the side the thermostat housing which located between the 3rd and 4th spark plugs). Loosen the bolt on the distributor and rotate it to get it near 12 BTDC.
Let see what the fault code numbers are and we'll go further from there.
Roland
PS Sorry for the delay but I just found your question in the 'pool' where it was referred by Kevin.