Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Strange idle

Car runs fine, while it's getting gas... If I park the car or come to a stop light or whatever, the car will sometimes start surging. It's not radical but it almost seems like the car starts to miss a little and then evens itself back out but starts missing again a second or two later and continues doing so until I either start going again or just tap the gas a little. Any idea what it might be? I know its got a brand new MAF on it and I don't have any other kind of idea that could be causing a problem like that.

My Zetec had a "irregular idle" the whole time I had it.

As did mine. From time to time, it would do exactly what you described. I don't know what could've caused it though...

Put me down as another zetec owner with the exact same behavior you describe. Idle in mine actually improves with the A/C on, too... guess thats cuz it kicks the RPM's up slightly.

I noticed mine does that too, maybe it's normal.
Mine mostly occurs after start up, sometimes down the road I can feel a slight bit of a surge but I give it a little gas and it's fine.

Yep, add one more to the list. It's usually when I'm at a light but putting it in neutral seems to help.

My zetec idles fine. The only idle problem its had is on cold mornings, maybe 1 or 2 times a year, it'll stall out when sitting in the driveway with the heat on.

The things I think you should look at are vacuum leaks, EGR, and IAC. And of course all normal maintenance stuff like double plat plugs, fuel filter, pcv valve, etc.

Intake Manifold Gasket.

Mine started off with a random poor idle. It turned into having to hold the brake and give it gas while at lights.

When the gasket gets old, it can't seal sometimes because of the temperature difference between the head and the manifold.

The problem is magnified on cold days.

HTH,
BP

Frog and Button...

Thanks for the tips on the non-routine stuff like EGR, IAC, and intake man gaskets. Good suggestions.

I'm going to take a look at all of these and see if I can't get mine to idle a little better. I think I'll start by spraying some carb cleaner or pointing some propane at the intake gasket area and see if the idle picks up noticeably, then check the other stuff as well.

seems to me that it has to do with the tranny. do any of you who responded have a manual transmission. my sorta does it too as does my sister's escort (both autotrannies). hence putting it in neutral would solve the "problem" by taking the stress off the engine of holding the transmission back. HTH.

caleb d.