Idle Problem/car dying
 

First off: I have a 1995 Ford Mustang 5.0 with around 95,000 miles on it, all stock expect a K&N Air Filter, removed Air Silencer, removed Catalyic Converters, short shift/slap shift and I recently did a tune up + more.

My Mustang will automaticly kill it's self after I stop. First the idle will go up and down and then it goes below 500 and trys to die. It completely died about 5 + stops and then the rest it would just try, but wouldn't die.

I had a semi problem like this last year around Christmas (when the bad weather/storm hit) and when I had them run a test on my car. They said it was my Mass Air Flow Sensor. I cleaned it, it helped, but by the time I cleaned it a friend got me a used one already. I clean it like every other day now because it still idles badly, but today it just got way worse. This is twice this has happened but with less problems and it wasn't snowing or iced out, just REALLY REALLY COLD last night.

This is annoying and pissing me off, but I have no clue what it is and I can't take my car in anytime soon. :/ WOW I DIDN'T NOTICE THIS WAS THAT LONG

Edit: After I do clean the Mass Air Flow Sensor my car runs just fine for awhile and then it goes back to bad idling (besides today of course). I am going to go clean it again with Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner (CRC) and then clean out the black rubber tube that goes to the manafold area.

Check your IAC, it might have some carbon build up on it. Also, make sure that the boot around the throttle body for your intake is tight.

How should I clean it? I read that I should use "1 can of throttle body cleaner". I'm taking it off right now, well try, I just got done working out and I'm so sore it hurts to move. LoL. Is there something else I can use to clean out the holes? Since all the Auto Part stores are closed? I did tighten everything on the mass air flow housing and the boot. I took it all off and cleaned it a little and made sure everything was tight.

Just use the throttle body cleaner, and see if you can clean out any existing carbon. Then after you put it back on let it run for a few minutes to burn the leftover cleaner off and see if that helps.

EDIT: Just noticed that you don't have the cleaner yet. Umm...maybe some carburetor cleaner if you've got some (very similar stuff)

Oh and don't lose the gasket in-between the TB and the IAC if you can avoid it or you'll be in for more problems.

So I'm better off waiting until I can get to an Autoparts store. DAMNIT! :( Thanks and hopefully it works.

Ah I didn't even see this EDIT, haha. Yeah it's okay, it would be easier for me to see in day light and I'm about to go get that cleaner stuff. What does TB stand for? This is where I found the information as well.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D1%26hl%3Den

TB= Throttle Body

Thanks. I didn't take off the Throttle Body because of the gas peddle or whatever is hooked up to it. So I took of the IAC and sprayed down both the holes. A lot of dirty water came out and then I went and sprayed the two holes on the throttle body as well. Just got done cleaning it and putting it back to gether, so it's now just out there running/idling.

Thanks for the help, hopefully this fixes the problem and it works better.

Yup, that would be your throttle linkage. If you didn't know that, then I don't think you should be the one cleaning your IAC (JMO). Anyway, you'll only need to have it running and idling for 5-10 minutes to burn off excess cleaner.

Yeah, but I'm taking a risk on working on my own car or I wont ever learn. :( I do know what it is and what it does. You can control/change your idle by it as well. I didn't mean to say whatever it's hooked to, I meant to say whatever it's called. I sometimes type to fast and don't actually fully pay attention. :/ But it fixed it and runs better, thank god. Hopefully my Gas Mileage will go up as well, just got a fill up and bought some Windsheild Whipers.

Question:
When I start my car it goes up to about 1,500 RPM and then it will go down slowly and then back to normal. Is that normal?
Also my car is idling at just below the half way point of 500 - 1,000. Is that normal?

That startup thing is normal, nothing really to worry about there. And it's idling around 750-850rpms, right? Sounds about right to me.

Yeah in that area, it was at 600 + for awhile, now it's different. Oh when I slow down like come to a stop it also takes awhile for it to go back down to that idle area. Is that normal too?

Thank you so much for the help king, you don't know how happy I am. I've been dealing with this bull**** since like December or so. My gas used to be about 160 or so on a full tank of gas and since then it hasn't even been hitting 140. Before I filled up today it was at like 133 or something. :(

Do you pull out of gear completely when coming to a stop (assuming it's a manual transmission)? If so, you're probably just confusing your cars computer. When you're at cruising speed your engine has a certain amount of load on it. If you pull out of the gear and coast in neutral to a stop, it's taking all of the load off of the engine which makes the computer freak out a little and it can sometimes do what you're saying it's doing for you. Anyway, to fix this issue you should keep your car in gear and have the engine slow down with your speed so that you don't have that confusing computer problem and then obviously put your car in neutral when you get down to a rpm closer to idle.

I usually do let the car slow it's self down along with me on the brake as well. But I never really take the car out of gear unless I'm letting it idle when I'm not in the car. Like I will slow down with second gear and then usually completely stop when it's down at low MPH. Either way it's nothing bad right? I mean it goes down to normal idle, but just takes a little.

No, it's nothing to worry about. But I'm a little confused here...does it idle up when you're decelerating? Or when you pull it out of gear at a stop? or what?

When I'm driving normaly, I use the gears to slow down and I use the brakes as well. I don't use first gear to slow down, I hardly ever do. But when I come to a complete stop (Clutch in and in first gear) it takes awhile to idle down from like 1,000 RPM or so to normal. Maybe I'm just being to paranoid about my car since I'm start to notice EVERYTHING.

Yeah that's not a problem at all. Pretty normal, actually. I was just thinking that if it's hanging around at 2,000rpms then it might be something worth fixing. But right now, don't fix it if it ain't broke.

My car did the same thing for the last week. I replaced the throttle position sensor for $31 and it fixed all of my problems.

Yeah it didn't do it before and it seems to be fine, but just different or something I'm not used to. It's not that high of RPM's and it's not doing anything, just odd.

What exactly did it do? The sensor on the side of the boot?

I had the same idle problem, I took it in and they said they could clean the idle motor or something like that for 40 bucks or replace the part for 200. I told them to clean it and that solved the problem. I think thats what the part was.

Yeah it's called the Idle Air Control Bypass and I fixed it for like what $5.00 (cleaner). haha the piece only cost like $70 or so. I solved my problem with help and it's running just fine. I just need to fix the back firing, E-Brake, and my door speaker (I think I blew another one). haha

I guess you blew the speakers out for having it too loud? Thats what happened to me.

Yeah I think I did today because I was doing that, competing againest my little brothers new lifted truck. But the lower passenger door speaker blew out of no where, not even having it loud. I keep it maybe just a little under half way mark.

Yeah I have this guy who spent like $2000 dollars for his whole audio system and can like hear the bass about 6 blocks away. He lives by me about two houses down and I rode with him and got a massage with it with all the bass, it was crazy.