Questions and Answers

Ford Escort Erratic Idle Q. We have a 1989 Ford Escort, 4 door with a 1.9 liter 4 cylinder engine, automatic transmission. My wife has a new car and wants to give the Escort to one of our daughters. It only has 67,000 original miles on it. The problem is that even though I have changed the plugs, wires, the large canister fuel filter, and air filter and the crank filter, it still runs fast when you start it and then goes down.

Sometimes it will run fine at idle, but most of the time it fluctuates badly. I had a new timing gear and chain put on it and that does not help either. Does this have another filter on the body of the injector (or carburetor)?. Like our old cars used to.

I have tried several of those expensive additives for the gas that cleans the injectors but they have not helped anything. The car will run fine if you are going down the road, but you do not want to stop real quick or it will die. It will start back up and I keep my foot on the gas to bring up the idle.

It used to run great. It just goes up about 800-1,000 rpm from idle and then in a little bit it will go down. Under the hood I can see the linkage going back and forth. I can move the linkage and it will run great. Then it decides to idle fine until it gets ready to go up and then back down.

Also I have changed the distributor cap and rotor. No change. The wires are not cheap either. I have not changed the $40.00 sensor that is at the exhaust point in the front of the motor yet. One guy at a parts service told me that you are supposed to change them, but it would not cause it to do what it is doing right now.

It does not heat up or anything, and does not burn oil. Could it be one of the electronic sensors somewhere in the system. I live in Spring, not far from Houston and want to fine a place to analyze this if I can't fix it soon. I do not want it dying on my 17 year old daughter.

Thanks,
Jim

A. The first thing I would suggest is to give the throttle chamber a good cleaning. That may very well take care of the problem for you. Then check all the vacuum lines. Make sure they are good and attached properly. Remember, vacuum lines never rub through where you can see it. Then check the computer for any codes. That will suggest other places to look for a problem.

Another thing to check is the EGR valve. Make sure it is closing completely and not hanging open.

If that has the Variable Venturi Carburetor on it by chance, sell it and get your daughter something else.