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Hi,

I have an old Mercury Tracer, on it's last legs/wheels, so don't want to put any more money in than is necessary.

It runs OK, but when idling, the idle speed drops, so you think it'll cut out... but so far it hasn't.

Any easy/cheap ideas?

Many thanks,

Richard  

What year and what size motor?  

1993 Mercury Tracer wagon, 1.9, 4 cylinder auto.  

Does it happen after the car warms up or all the time?
It sounds like the ldle air control motor is failing. It's possible the O2 sensor might be baked also. How many miles do you have on your O2 sensor? There only good for about 50K miles. Idle air control motor would be my first guess.  

thanks for the reply.
The car has 130K miles on it, and I don't know whether the sensor has been replaced or not.
It's actually a friend's car, and I'm trying to talk her into getting another car... it's the old dilemma of when do you say 'no more' to continuing to fix an old car... we're in LA and the A/C has broken now as well...  

yeah the first place i would look is the idle air control valve, it probably needs cleaned.  

I'm not experienced with car mechanics... what if I start by putting some fuel injection cleaner in?
Richard  

"I'm not experienced with car mechanics... what if I start by putting some fuel injection cleaner in?
Richard"

Rich:

        Find a shop you can trust or leave your foot on the gas and don't let it stall. Sometimes additives cause more problems than they solve.  

if you are not experienced with cars, although not a hard task, cleaning your iac valve can get a little tricky.  You could just get a bottle of throttle body cleaner, disconnect your airbox hose (the one connected to your throttle body) and spray it all around the throttle body then wip it off, it might help but its doubtful.  Otherwise I would take it to a mechanic that you trust.


good luck  

thanks for the advice, everyone...