EA Falcon idle's like a biatch - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

10-20-2002, 23:28

Ive got a 88 EA 3.9 CFI 5 speed

This problem has appeared since its been getting hot her in sydney

On cold days ...its OK

On warm to hot days

On start , everything is OK , when it warms up , it idles very fast . Fast idle between gear changes , and when you stop .

If you let it idle , it will idle fast for 10 secs or so then idle will drop right down and stall , or almost stall , then fast idle ....rinse and repeat.

Any ideas , im new to falcons and efi.... but i can swing a spanner.

10-21-2002, 01:40

Sticky throttle cable?

They seem to stick most when they heat up for some reason, as my brother has this problem in his Silly Car(Celica)

PHoeNiX_EB · 10-21-2002, 01:50

It may be the Idle Speed Controller. Take it off and clean it.
If u dont know how goto http://users.tpg.com.au/users/mij/Au.../Problems.html

10-21-2002, 02:24

I dont believe mine has an adle speed controller as described on that page

It doesnt have a sticky cable either....

Ive had the bonnet open and looked at the idle spped controller , looks like a stepper motor of some type like a solenoid. This is moving up and down creating the rough idle.

Dont know if this is a common problem , but im thinking as the controller is working ...im guessing the computer is controlling the idle . Thus the computer is getting a bad feedback from a sensor ??? But then im probably talking shit :)

maddymoo1 · 10-21-2002, 03:48

I have had this problem with my bro in laws EF and I may be wrong but I think the computer monitors the engine speed and if the idle control solenoid is not throttling properly it will attempt to compensate causing the high /low idle effect.we got a secondhand idle control solenoid for $25 and swapped it and the problem went away.ps.. we tryed cleaning it with INOX first but didn't work.

10-21-2002, 04:30

thanks ... ill give that a go this weekend