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.
-Matt T

 

I would hook a fuel pressure guage to the vehicle and monitor it while driving. Good place to start is the fuel pump. Is there any codes in the system or a Check Engine Light on?