i have a 1997 SE. i just installed my stereo system this past saturday. i have a 850 watt kenwood amplifier in my trunk that has a power wire running from it to the battery under the hood. i drove my car around fine on saturday - tuesday. battery gauge says i have plenty of power....it'* on the "14" marker most of the time. today my check engine light started blinking and my engine started vibrating and kind of stuttering real bad. when the car is in park my RPM gauge says 1.5k. i have absoluetely no idea what is causing this. the reason i mention all of the audio stuff is because i'm wondering if it is whats causing the problem. does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?

sounds like a TPS issue or related, but I would get it scanned ASAP.

ok, anyone else have any opinion??

can anyone help?

IAC valve stuck open, weird MAF sensor issue, vacuum leak... could be a number of things. With idleing, pull the wires off those two things one at a time to exclude them. Can you get the car scanned?

Im talking to him in AIM...he is getting the car scanned tomarrow....we cant diagnoise untill the codes are pulled

if you suspect the audio stuff, pull the fuses for it.

yeah with a faulty maf it can mess up the idle real bad as well. I'd make sure that connection is seated properly.

Also check the voltage of the TPS, A and C wires with a multimeter to see what the idle voltage reading is.

Normally when the check engine lights flashes *rhythmically*, it means you have an ignition problem.

Sounds exactly like my problem.

Last time I had the problem you describe, I had a bad ignition coil, well, one of them was bad. Mine has the distributorless ignition, and has the 3 coils.
Mine had went bad from corrosion on one of the terminals.

So if you are to do this on your own, start here -

With engine OFF, checkl each wire, one at a time, connecting to the coil(*). Make sure the connections are good and clean. reconnect after inspection.

MAke sure there is a good connection to the coil pack on the coil frame.

If both check out, Start checking for spark on each wire by disconnecting the spark plug wire AT the plug, one at a time, and while someone turns over the engine, hold the wire close to a metal part of the car, away from sensors and gas lines. You may have to remove the cross support on the struts to get to the back plug wires. No biggie.
SIDE NOTE - have something to hold the wire, as to not get shocked.

At this point, one of the wires is probably going to fail to have spark. Make note of the bad one. All wires should be connected firm after this test.

NOW, trace that sparkless wire to the coil it is connected to. Disconnect the wire from coil, and try starting the engine. you should see and hear spark normally, but if the coil is bad, you will have none. So now you have the possible problem - a bad coil.

To make SURE it is the coil that is bad nad not somethig else, disconnect that ciol from spark wires and either of the other two. Make note of the POSITION of the spark wires, paying no regard to the numbers on the coils.
Unscrew and switch the two coils, reconnect the spark wires, and check to see if THIS time, the position rendering no spark originally has spark this time. if it does, you have a bad coil.
$30+ tax at PEP boys.

I hope this made sense,

i just drove it around for 10 miles or so with my dad. he doesn't feel that any of the audio stuff is the problem. he thinks we should just wait until it gets scanned to try to figure anything out. i'll post the codes after the car is scanned tomorow.