My O.L. has an '89 dodge shadow, 2.5L non-turbo, auto tranny and it has started to idle very badly when started 1st thing in the morning, on a cold or warm morning. It sounds like it's "loading up", but there is no black smoke coming from the tailpipe. When you step on the gas it smoothes right out, and runs fine down the road. Also, if you let it idle long enough to warm up, eventually it will idle normally, it's only when the engine is COLD, (not been run for many hours), that it idles rough. I wonder if there isn't a bad sensor somewhere that controls the idle mixture and makes it run that way when cold. Within the last 10K miles we replaced the spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor, plug wires, and coil, (for a different problem, and also to tune it up. Turns out it was a cracked coil and the car would barely start when it was wet outside). Anyway, I feel I can pretty much rule out an ignition problem because of this. Has anyone had this happen, or read about a fix?
Thanks, Snydley