car behaves strange when cold

[injektilo]

Hey guys. I have a 2001 outback 5 speed - 66,000 miles. I've noticed when it is initially started (particularly in cold weather) as I go through the gears the rpms surge between shifts (instead of falling as the clutch is depressed). Is this normal? Never experienced this with any other car I've owned. Once the car warms up it stops. Also, anybody else have noisy dash plastic. There are a few spots on my dash that if pushed groan and crackle. On rough roads it often sounds like a bowl of rice crispies (snap crackle pop). Is this fixable or is my dash worn out? All in all I really like the car. Thanks for any help.

Kevin

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[skiertrav]

My car does the same thing with the rpm's when it's cold. I've always thought that it was the choke. If it's just sitting there for a while the rpms stay higher until it's a little warmer, then go they go down. I've always thought it was just the car attempting to keep the rpms as high as possible, because it only happens when it's cold.

[hawksoob]

I've had my OBW for 2 years now (bought used...has nearly 155K miles on it) and just this winter noticed the dash pop. I understand it's fairly normal. It's also incredibly annoying. Mostly notice a loud CRACK when I stop short. From my understanding, it involves a fairly complex (read: expensive) repair that may or may NOT actually cause it to go away permanently.

I also recently started paying attention to the high idle you mention. First thing in the morning, cold engine, high revs. Yesterday I did a bit of an experiment. Started it up from cold and paid attention to the tach. Idled at around 1500-1600 rpm. I touched nothing. (I'll usually just tap the accelerator once and it drops to normal ... this time I waited). I noticed that over the course of about 5 minutes, it slowly decreased to normal idle speed of 750rpm.

My understanding is that if anyone is the type to sit for several minutes with the car warming up, the time allowed for leveling out and normalizing of idle speed is about the maximum needed by the engine. More may be needed, of course, to get the heater nice and toasty, but that's all for the engine.

Of course, I may be misunderstanding.

[injektilo]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like my car is normal. The dash thing is extremely annoying. I suppose as cars age some noise is to be expected. Mine only has 66,000 miles on it though. Oh well. I guess I can live with it. Thanks again for the help.

Kevin

[Rally Medic]