My 2001 mercury sable is having an Idle problem. It is OK when going, but when stopped it "surges".?

The Idle control switch may have gone bad , We replaced a lot of them at the factory , Does your car run ruff cuts out at red lights, stop sighs That is your problem hope this helps,

Mercury Sable 2001

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My 2001 mercury sable is having an Idle problem. It is OK when going, but when stopped it "surges".?

I can see the RPM meter reve, and it has cut out on me once.Could it be a vacuum hose or fuel pump? I don't have a lot of money for exploration, so I kind of need to let the mechanic kinda of know where to look to fix lthe problem.I.m worried that I will be cought in a traffic jam and the car...

Fuel pump problems actually usually happen on hard acceleration not on idle.

My guess is the throttle body is dirty or their is an airleak.... A lose off or misrouted can cause the surge condition in 3.0 12 valve or FFV vehicles and bad o-rings for the intake can cause this on the 24 valve models.

Make sure the air cleaner box is properly attached and locked down with the two clips... that two hoses are connected.

After that it will take a mechanic shop to diagnose... As I've had some cars that run good on the highway but actually miss at idle from around that year.

Also the idle speed motor will usually stall a car but never make it run rough on that model....

Hope this helps you

First off, is the check engine light on? Your car is new enough that it should easily be hooked to a computer and quickly diagnosed. This usually is a $70 to $100 fee. It will tell the mechanic exactly what the problem is. Most likely it is a sensor. My guess would be a crank position sensor and possibly egr valve. Either way, the diagnostic will be necessary in order to pinpoint the problem. You may also check with your local ford/mercury dealer to see if this may be a common problem. I would recommend going to the dealership, don't talk to the service manager, but go to the back and ask one of the mechanics. He may offer to do it on the side at his home. Most likely it is an easy fix and expect to spend between $250 and $500 if you use the dealer. You might get out anywhere from $150 to $350 if you use an independent mechanic. P.S. take a guy with you if your worried about getting taken advantage of and make sure he looks like he might know something even if he doesn't. This will help from being taken advantage of. If you don't take a guy, flirt your butt off; most men in mechanic shops are just that, "men". Use the tools God gave you to your advantage.

2001 Mercury Sable

For starters buy a Chilton's manual at auto zone or another car parts center so you can trouble shoot your car yourself, it's much cheaper than paying for labor and estimates. Second you should be able to adjust your idle a bit lower without changing anything once you read how to adjust your idle in the Chilton's I say this because each car has different settings so what has worked for just anyone's car may not for yours. Third I recommend attending a class that may be offered on general car repairs at a local community center or a cheap few week course at a community college if you can't find anything elsewhere.

it could be the idle air control valve causing this to happen or a bad throttle position sensor or even a bad 0-2 sensor causing this,your best bet is to have it scanned to see if any trouble codes come up on the computer,this way you,ll have some kind of an idea of what your up against with it,good luck on it.

Try driving with your gas cap off. I have heard of the vent in the gas cap plugging and causing this problem. Know a guy with a Ford Ranger that had this problem and dealer couldn't figure it out and then he always noticed it would run good for awhile just after he refueled so he just drilled a small hole in the gas cap and never had a problem since. Good Luck!

yes it could be a vaccum hose check them all out worst case senerio if your throtlebody is electronic like in an altima then you do have to take it to a mechanic if your check engine light is on then try takeing it to autozone they will check it with a code reader and will tell you if you idle system is mest up oh yeah and it's free to check it