Rough idle and stalls everytime I stop

[jnewt6979]

The roads have finally cleared and I pulled the festiva out got it cleaned up did some maintenance and it drove fine for the first day. Now the second day has rolled around it dies everytime I come to the stop unless I hold the gas pedal down. Which is hard to do with a manual trying to brake and shift at the same time. I cleaned the plugs and less than 30 miles later they are pitch black again and the fuel economy is not what it used to be also. So I am wondering what would cause this it is EFI and a 93 festiva manual with only 103000 miles on it. I was wondering if it could be a sensor and which one it could be I have checked all the vacum lines and the air filter and air line. When I remove a cap on a outlet on the manifold which has always been there the engine runs better which is telling me it is starving for air. I replaced the thermostat. and I am at a complte loss please some one tell me they dealt with this it is extremely hard and spendy to find parts around here in Idaho. I am open to any suggestions. Thanks for helping the new guy out.

[JohnGunn]

I hate to keep repeating the same suggestion over and over again, but what can I do but give what I believe to be the best advice I can.

If cleaning the plugs helped for 30 miles, maybe new plugs, NGK V-Power, carefully gapped to 0.044" using a wire type gauge so that when you pull the wire through the gap the resistance you feel is exactly the same for each plug, would make it run for 30,000 miles or 24 months, whichever comes first.

That's the first thing I would do, and, if that doesn't fix the problem, take them out and save them for your next tune up. You will have eliminated the most likely source of such a problem, before starting to replace expensive emission control items which are much, much less likely to fail.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[jnewt6979]

I appreciate the suggestion and I will replace all the wire plugs and cap and rotor but I was told that it is running rich and when I ask around up here I get told anywhere from the O2 sensor, coolant sensor, maf sensor, throttle position sensor, I do like that you told me about the NGK plugs and I am on my way to pick those up but I feel like it is the running rich problem and I was even told by someone that happened to walk in on my conversation and told me to cut of my catylytic converter because it might be partially blocked. I feel like this could be an easy fix and I know someone is having the same problem somewhere and figured it out. But thanks for the suggestion and I will go pick those up tommorow when I get off shift. Keep the suggestions coming

[JohnGunn]

Don't get ahead of yourself and start worrying about what to do next before you finish what have already begun. Do the task at hand to the best of your ability. Then report the results. Then evaluate the responses you get before deciding what to do next. Above all, don't allow the pressure of time to corrupt the process.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[scitzz]

Something real easy to check....

The MAF is located by the air filter box, make sure the connection there is good. I have knocked it loose a couple of times doing other work (these kinds of things happen to me, what can I say? I am a clutcz!) and it does that, FWIW.

If I knock mine loose, it starts, revs up kind of high for a few seconds, then dies....

[jnewt6979]

Well I just want to update my situation I went out and got a haynes book and started checking sensors. I checked my fuel injection and my TPS sensor everything checked out fine but the suggestion was made to me to spray some carb cleaner into the throttle body and wipe out as much as I can so I did just that not a lot of residue came out but after letting it air dry to a p[oint I started it up again and low and behold it idles fine now. I went out and got the works for tune up NGK v power plugs wires rotor cap pcv valve and fuel filter. I noticed that when I pulled the old plugs out they were burning good again so talking with a freind or two and they told me that I might of had a poor connection to the tps sensor and maybe just disconnecting it and reconnecting it might have helped more than I know. I am going on a little drive tonight to see how the other tune up items helpe out with performance and let you know. Thanks so much and this is a cool site to find other stuff to

[JohnGunn]

Good news. My fingers are crossed.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[smurfstiva]

same problem

'89 carbie brand new engine idle very crazy and i have replace a few what looked to be bad vacuum lines and still no fix. any ideas? oh and oddly enough when you push in the clutch it revs up then back down and same when you let off of the clutch.

[1988redfordfestiva]

hey the best plugs i ever used that they dont sell anymore that my bro told me about are acdelco a gm part ya its funny but they work better then anything i have a set by luck he left behind but i heard they still make them u just gota look up the number is this true

[1988redfordfestiva]

does it idle fast when u turn the heater on ? i just fixed a bad solenoid on mind i got it off of a Mazda b2200 4 cylinder or u can get them off of a ford probe motor as well i know mine went bad with out warning i just happen to try it and it stop high idle try it out

[JohnGunn]

'89 carbie brand new engine idle very crazy and i have replace a few what looked to be bad vacuum lines and still no fix. any ideas? oh and oddly enough when you push in the clutch it revs up then back down and same when you let off of the clutch.

Let me suggest that you start a new thread with a full description of you problem. Even though you think you have the "same problem," the fact that your Festiva is carbureted and the car of the thread originator is fuel injected means that the possible causes and approach to finding them will be completely different in detail.

Try and be as precise as you can in telling what happens when you start the car and what happens after it has warmed up. To say the idle is "very crazy" will, in all likelihood, not give you the kind of detailed analysis you need.

That having been said, though I've never dealt with a carbureted Festiva, I did notice in the Haynes manual that you need to ground the "set timing connector" when setting the idle speed. Running a jumper wire from that connector to ground tells the computer to stop trying to control the idle speed. As with either system, the best place to start in dealing with an idle problem is by setting it as well as you can.

Also grounding that connector might change the way the idle responds when the clutch is depressed. It could be the result of the computer trying to compensate for something that it expects might affect the idle speed.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA