birdmant94

Sorry, I'm not a mustang owner - I own a 1994 Thunderbird 4.6L V8.

I've been having an issue with my car idle that for some reason nobody on the TCCOA (Thunderbird and Cougar Club of America) site has been able to help me with.

So here's the deal:

When I come to an idle (completely, if I touch the gas at all it's fine) my car will act like it's going to stall. The oil gauge (this is a fake gauge on our cars from what I understad - it basically is an idiot light with a stick on it) drops down and fights to stay up, but stays really low. Furthermore, sometimes at idle my car will stall. When I try to restart it, it won't start back up for like 2 minutes. As you can imagine this is extremely annoying if you're driving down the road or at a stoplight. It seems like these things tend to happen when the car heats up.

To try to fix the problem I have done the following: replaced MAF, replaced IAC, replaced fuel filter, replaced spark plugs and wires, cleaned 4 plugs beneath my passenger side kick panel with WD-40 (somebody suggested this...), replaced the camshaft position sensor (it kept throwing a code), fixed a vacuum leak near the plenum (this helped the idle a lot...the rpm's used to jump really bad - now they don't so much) and finally, nearly pulled all my hair out. If ANYBODY could offer a solution to this ongoing problem I would GREATLY appreciate it.

PLEASE, if you know what would cause my car to stall and not start for 2-10 minutes, please help me.

I can be reached at apollo3@ufl.edu if you have any suggestions. Thanks in advance and sorry for being in the wrong place .

-Matt T

tricky02GT

Its because its NOT a Mustang. No really any idea what problem could be, and what does temperature gauge say when this happens?

mudshuvel319

Sorry to hear about your problems, but you're more than welcome here, lol. As for you issue, here are some suggestions:

A. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your car has coil packs, not COP. Is the car misfiring? if it is, it would have a roughness to it when you accelerate or put a heavy load on the engine. Even if you replaced the spark plugs, you could still have bad coils.

B. Check the EGR valve.

C. Did you make any changes like adjusting timing or idle speed?

D. I hope not, but there could be bad compression in a cylinder (this would also make it miss).

E. Check that all intake hoses/piping is securly tightened. Also make sure the intake manifold it tightened down. You could have a leak, which would have the engine sucking in air, which would throw off the MAF sensor.

D. Check for clogged fuel line.

F. Make sure spark plugs have correct gap.

That's all I can think of right now. Good luck and let us know how things progress. -Dan

Scothew

Yeah he has coil packs, but i've rarely seen one go bad. Acctually i havent to tell you the truth.

Also, as simple as it may be, but have you reset hte battery since you've changed all these parts? Might be as simple as that, at least I hope it is for you.

birdmant94

I have been thinking EGR for a while - but I'm concerned about continuing to throw money at the problem...but I'll probably end up doing that soon.

My check engine light came back on after a few days of being off (since I replaced my camshaft position sensor). I've read about some issues with the harness for the CPS so I might have to check into that.

I did raise the idle. I raised it about as much as it would let me to try to cure the problem before. This wouldn't make the problem worse would it?

I haven't messed with the timing speed and haven't dealt much with clogged fuel line except to replace the fuel filter the other day.

How can I make sure the spark plugs are gapped correctly?

Oh, I forgot to mention something. Every once in a while, the car will misfire and kick back pretty hard on me. I haven't found any pattern to it misfiring though, but I seem to remember it happening at near idle as well as normal acceleration (South Florida traffic = I get to go through all kinds of speeds).

Oh, I also reset the battery btw.

I'm going to give a few of these options a shot - please feel free to suggest something else! Mud - thank you for your help as well.

-Matt

tricky02GT

Reset battery, start engine and let idle for 10 minutes. Try it, it might work. Hope it will idle for that long.

ShadowGray

Matt,

Have you changed out the plug wires?.

My 94 bird had a similar symptom when one of the wires was arcing over to another. it would not idle very well, and occasionally it would kick back when starting as the wires arced together. It did not throw the 'missfire' code when it was doing this but when one wire opened up completely, it did then. these were the original wires as supplied when new. The aftermarket ones have been much better.

As the wires are routed underneath the alternator and are not easily seen, they could get chafed or rubbed through etc. They are kind of a pain to route when replacing ,so you might want to go get the wiring and holders for the 96/97 bird or Mustang that route the wires over the alternator.

Stan

Ford3242

EGR Valves on the 93-97 Birds seem to be a problem. If nothing else go to Autozone and have them hook it up on the diagnosis machine for free. Good luck.

birdmant94

I have replaced the wires in the past year or two.

Also, if I take my car to Autozone, they will check my codes or my EGR valve?

They have an EGR valve checking machine? The only code my car is throwing is the Camshaft Position Sensor Po340 which I just replaced and the light has come back on.

Please let me know...

-Matt

mudshuvel319

The EGR valve is tested with a vacuum guage. I'm sure AUtozone would have the ability to test it, but that wouldnt be free. The only test you can really do without the tool is to take a look at the hoses connected to it and make sure they arent cracked or loose.
If you are concerned about the EGR valve, you'll have to take it somewhere to have it checked out.