Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Idle goes up and down/stalls. 95 Duratec ATX

No need to go to Autozone to have them "pull the code" as with the 95's (and only the 95's) you can pull the code yourself with just a paper clip and few minutes of time. Read thru THIS information and it should tell you how to run the test and what the code will tell you.

The part you need to clean on the MAF will be easy to get at from the air filter box. Just pop the top and look down the intake for the vertical bar with the sampling 'horn' on it. Spray the parts cleaner into the little horn.

Check the bypass hose that goes from the accordian tube to the IAC valve for cracks/leaks before replacing the IAC valve itself. These are about $80 new and won't work any better than the old one if there are any leaks in the hoses.

whats the tps sensor?

I also cleaned the throttle body that was gunked up.how do you get to the intake manifold gasket?

HEY I REMEMBER DOING THIS IN VO-TECH CLASS YEARS AGO.
NOW I REMEMBER WHY I BECAME A MACHINIST INSTEAD OF A MECHANIC!!!!!! I'm game for anything.thanks.

TPS=Throttle Position Sensor. It's located on the throttle body and indicates how far the throttle is open. You may want to unplug-replug the connector to it to make sure you have a good connection. You have to remove the entire upper intake manifold to get to the gaskets underneath. Lot's of stuff to disconnect & take apart. (Recommend getting a manual if you haven't done this before...)

BTW: Look up CEL codes here

I cleaned everything on, in under the throttle body sooooo
i must have cleaned it. Guess i better check it!!!

if u've cleaned the throttle body did u also clean the egr passages in the intake manifold behind the t/b??? for my car thats all i did and it worked...this problem seems like its cropping up alot recently on the site...other suggestions are to check/replace the sensors as mentioned...if i could i would replace the sensors anyway, since that seems to be the rememdy...i did a necessary cleaning but im not smart enough to know if that'll keep the problem from returning

YEAH, ALREADY DONE. I'M BEGINNING TO THINK SENSORS. I THINK THE CODES FROM OTHER POSTS WILL HELP DETERMINE WHICH
ONE IT IS.

Well, the car (95 Cont LX V6 ATX) seems to be working ok now. What I did was remove the metal section where the MAF sensor is and spray STP throttle-body cleaner. I don't think it made much of a difference because it wasn't dirty. I also checked the throttle plate and sprayed inside it as well. I could see a lot of gunk on the back of the throttle plate and immediately behind it, in the intake plenum. I couldn't clean out the gunk completely but I did spray profusely. I wonder how badly all that gunk is affecting engine performance. Finally, what I think did it is a little hose that connects to the big rubber hose between the MAF and the throttle. This little hose was disconnected and I'm not sure if it was because of all that fumbling or if it was indeed the cause of the problem. I tend to believe it was the cause. I connected the little hose (after not a little cursing, cajoling, huffing and puffing, and more cursing. Damn, that was hard!) and after tightening everything, voila! the car started... and then spluttered and stalled. It did that for a while until all that throttle cleaning fluid I had sprayed so liberally got consumed by the engine.

In retrospective, and having read some more of your replies, I think the little hose detached was all the problem. By disconnecting the MAF sensor I think I made the EEC-V run in some kind of emergency mode that was actually better than having it connected. I think the little hose is the bypass to the idle control valve. I wish I had looked better, but it was so damn cold I didn't care too much.

I basically fixed the problem by a lucky stroke, but my friend (the owner of the car) thinks I'm a genious, so I'll leave it like that!

Thanks for the comments.