IAC Valve Failure Symptoms or Something Else??

Mr Bojangles

New Member
Feb 9, 2009
268
0
0
Madison, WI
I've got an 88 n/a that I use as a winter beater, for the last 8-12months it developed a random intermittent surge at idle. Sometimes it's very minor on start up and goes away as soon as I bring the rpms up a bit and two or three times has been so bad it gives me driveability issues.

I pulled my maf and IAC and cleaned it all out and did a visual inspection for any air leaks after the MAF and the condition still continues. I can squeeze that large vacuum hose that runs from the intak to the TB and stall the car out. I would assume its the IAC except that it comes down from higher rpm's smoothly, but will then surge once it's settled around 7-800 rpm. Sometimes when it's really bad I can shut the car off and start it right back up and it will idle perfect for the rest of the drive or for a month. I can't put together any common circumstances that it happens such as when the engine is cold or hot or only at start up etc.

Instead of dropping a couple hundred bucks on a new IAC, I figured I'd see if anyone has any other guesses.
 

gsxr141

Active Member
Oct 24, 2010
1,158
10
38
rochester
i thought i was the only one with this issue. yours doesn't seem that bad. my car either idles at 1500, or surges from 1300 to 2000. sometimes after cycling the key a few times it goes away. it's way too intermittent to even tell you what's causing it.
have you unplugged the iac while the car is running?
 

Mr Bojangles

New Member
Feb 9, 2009
268
0
0
Madison, WI
Yes I did unplug it at idle and it made zero difference. Mine usually surges from 500-1000k rpm acting like it's about to stall, but never does. It's super random, but it sucks because it's just enough of an issue to make me second guess the car in the winter and since it's a beater I'm not going to throw money at it to try and solve it.