dmcca

Ok, first off I know very little about cars, so I'll try my best on this. I have a 95 Ford Escort Wagon with a manual transmission. For a few months, it has been idling very rough. My friend thought it might be bad spark plugs and replaced them, and he also checked out the wires, but that didn't solve anything.

When I put the car in neutral or step on the clutch, the car shakes a lot. Sometimes it's not too noticeable, but it seems pretty bad lately. It also dies on me if I let it just sit there without giving it some gas.

My friend is going to look at it again tomorrow and see if he can figure it out, but he really doesn't know where to start from, so I'm hoping someone here could tell me what they believe the problem is. Someone suggested a bad oxygen sensor, but my friend isn't so sure of that.

Thanks in advance!

Amy

 

ScortRacer

Hi, I dont know if you are still having your idle problem, but a notorious cause is that the large hose between the airbox (where the airfilter is located) and the intake manifold gets small cracks in it and allows air to leak in. If you take some duct-tape and wrap it around the hose to seal off those leaks it should improve your idle. There is also a small "S" shaped hose that is on that same larger intake hose. Make sure there are no cracks in that hose as well. These leaks interfere with the Mass Air Flow sensor, causing a rough idle or stalling problems.

DeBosco

Replace the idle air control valve. It sits right on top where the air intake hose connects to the fuel injection rail. I just put a new one in my '94 Escort and the idle smoothed out beautifully. $85 at the dealer. Two bolts, an electrical connector, and a new gasket. Easy.

staygreen

I just found this forum, so sorry if this info is too late.

My '95 Escort with manual tranny was stumbling badly on part throttle acceleration, such as when going up a slight hill in 5th gear at about 60mph. Downshifting into 4th allowed the car to accelerate fine under full throttle. Therefore I ruled out plugs, wires, fuel filter, fuel pump, dirty fuel injectors, etc.

I agree with the third posting by DeBosco that the cause is likely a bad IAC (idle air control) valve. I was too cheap to give Ford $85 for a new one. I removed mine and found the two circular pockets which allow air to bypass the throttle butterfly were encrusted with sooty, black dirt. I ignored the factory warning label not to attempt to clean the IAC, figuring what did I have to lose? I sprayed Brakleen solvent into both ports, and carefully worked it around with a small, soft brush. I paid particular attention to the springloaded shaft for the plunger. I think it was sticking, and not allowing enough air into the intake manifold for smooth running. I dumped the black liquid out, and rinsed two more times with brushing. Then I blew it dry with low pressure (about 20 psi) compressed air and put it back on the car.

The stumble on idling and partial throttle acceleration disappeared. And if it reoccurs, I know exactly what to do!

Hope this helps.