can the symptons of a surging idle at highway speeds be related to a slipping transmission?

 

I had a surging rpm and tach bounce at highway speeds on my V6 that was due to a faulty ignition coil. Cost me $75 to replace myself.
What makes you think the trans is slipping?

 

184,000 miles on the transmission
lol

 

Is it clunky or anything?
Does theRPM only surge at highway speeds? Or does it surge at idle as well?

 

My Ram did something similar to this. While cruising down the freeway, it would sometimes feel as it it slipped out of gear and the RPM's would jump a bit. Then it would go back to normal.

It did it once and I got mad and floored it and cranked the RPM's up to about 5000 and it didnt do it anymore. I have no clue what was going on but there ya go.

 

well, it surges at both highway and idle speeds
my fast idle valve is brand new from the dealership, and it eliminated MOST of the surging problems, but some still exists, and it's pretty annoying
i also noticed that my car idles sort of low, like 500 rpm? my mechanic said that the idle screw is maxed, lol

 

Is the coil internal or external?
The coil may not have anything to do with it, it just reminded me of my problem.

 

I dont know where my coil is located. lol.....

 

If it is external, it would be beneath the distributor (i believe). Regardless, there is an easy way to find out: Look at your distributor. Does it have 4 spark plug wires coming out of it and one extra wire coming out and going to something else? if so, you have an external coil. the extra wire is the high tension lead from distributor to coil. If there are only 4 wires, you have an internal coil (the coil is located within the distributor).

 

You might want to pull the radio(backup) fuse to reset the settings on the ECU. It is a 7.5 amp fuse in the engine bay box. When I changed my FITV, the idle acted very strange. Resettng the ECU fixed that problem.

Also, air might have been introduced to the coolant when changing the FITV and air screws up your temp sensor readings. There is a bleed valve (12 or 10 mm) on top of the thermostat housing. Open that up with the radiator cap off and make sure that coolant continues to flow out without spitting up air. Then top off the radiator.