Dodge Caliber- RPM Surges while in Park

Hi all. My 2008 Dodge Caliber constantly and consistently surges in RPM while in park. Only while in park, not drive or reverse. When I put it in drive or reverse, the RPM immediately drops down to normal range. I have no RPM meter, so I do not have any numbers for you. The RPM surges every time I start the car, or put the car in park. Temperature does not seem to affect it at all. There are no warning lights/check engine lights on or anything.



Any advice? What could it be? How much could it cost to fix it?

Isn’t this thing under warranty? In which case your local Dodge dealer needs to figure this out and fix it for you? And it should cost you nothing?

By surging do you mean it just revs up and stays high? Or do you mean that its consistently revs up and down?

Well, evidently we have a 6-year/60,000m warranty that ‘doesn’t cover much’ (so my dad says) and the normal 1 year warranty is already expired. The original dealership has since shut down, not surprisingly. So, with it not being covered, I probably can’t afford to have it fixed.

It revs up and stays high.

This is a problem with your engine which most certainly should be covered under warranty. Don’t just go by your dad - call the next nearest Dodge dealer. The warranty might not cover things like broken window motors or power locks or something, but it most certainly covers the whole power train (engine/transmission).

Anyway…I would not be messing with it - I would be making Dodge mess with it, but the places to start with high idle are to simply inspect the throttle mechanism itself to make sure that nothing is binding or sticking; check for vacuum leaks - disconnected, broken, split vacuum hoses. For a high idle you’d be looking for something fairly substantial. Especially look all around the throttle body. And check the throttle position sensor (tps) - start with a basic inspection of the wiring.

How many miles are on this car, and how has the maintenance been? If any maintenance items are not up to date (check the owners manual), then you should make it so.