Hi everyone. New member here. I have a 1994 Mercury Tracer wagon 1.9L Automatic Transmission. It runs pretty good for having 145,000+ miles.

I have one issue. My car stalls occassionally when I come to a complete stop. It only stalls when I have the car in "Drive" and applying the brake like at a stoplight. The car will shake and stall or it will just sit there and shake/vibrate.

I can put the car in neutral or park and it will idle fine and doesnt seem to hesitate at all, it only occurs when i have it in drive and i am at a complete stop. Any suggestions? Possible bad EGR or some kind of vacuum leak?

Plugs/Wires are fairly recent (30,000 miles)
New Transmission fluid and filter have 20,000 miles on it.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

get some carb/throttle body cleaner and follow the directions about cleaning out the throttle body (where the hose from the air filter hooks up to the engine). You'll want to aim at the ports on the side of the throttle body to help clean out the idle air control motor that helps control idle, it's probably clogged up. You may also have weak spark and may need to check the spark plugs. If the wires are the original wires, you may need to replace those as well.

 

thanks for the suggestion. Someone else also suggested to clean out the TB really good and possibly replacing the IAC valve if cleaning the TB doesnt work. I'll follow up and let everyone know what happens after i tackle it this weekend.

 

UPDATE: I thoroughly cleaned the IAC and throttlebody (used TB spray cleaner and some cheap toothbrushes). I even cleaned off the MAF sensor with some MAF sensor spray cleaner. The shaking still persisted but the car hasn't stalled once!

I'm not sure why the car still vibrates when I put it in DRIVE or REVERSE. I chalk it up to just having a transmission that's just old (146,000 miles on it). I replaced the 2 motor mounts (front and transmission mounts) under the car which did make the car run smoother while driving around, but at idle the car still shakes unless I put it in neutral or park. I think i will still replace the IAC valve since i can get a new motorcraft one for $50 anyway. I'll let you know how that turns out as well. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Just start cleaning the IAC and the throttle body more regularly and see if the problem starts to go away more and more. Have you run any fuel treatment recently? Changed the fuel filter?

 

very new to this site. i am having a very similar problem with my 93 wagon. but it is not consistent in any way. and it does only happen when i come to a complete stop, again sporadic at most. this problem didn't occur until my father in law replaced my a/c compressor and clutch. plugs, and wires just replaced maybe 5k ago. tryed cleaning the throttle body, and still very sporadic but still occurs. any luck on your end with the iac valve?