Thread: irratic idle in drive while warm

Originally Posted by matt5112

unplug the maf and see if it gets better.

if it does, then the MAF is bad.

no change still Idles the same unless I shut it off for a couple secs then try to start it again it don't wanna start when I do that but does and run the same

Originally Posted by The Guz

My mom's 96 regal with a 3.8 NA was doing the same thing. After the car sat after the initial turn on, it would not crank unless the gas pedal was pressed. I originally thought it was the MAF and swapped in the new one. It did the same thing. I also cleaned the IAC valve which helped a little. After all the tinkering I went ahead and replaced the FPR. It turned out that the FPR was causing all of these issues. It's been almost 6 months and the car runs perfect.

I will be getting a new FPR on payday just got plugs and wires going to do them tomorrow

well I fixed it ..... but it made me feel stupid...cost to fix $0 turns out the plug wire by the O2 sensor was touching the O2 sensor... everytime I fiddled wire the plugs and or wires I must have pulled it just far enough away to overlook it. I was planning on changing the plus today when I started it up it was misfiring like before and I popped the hood just to check something I was going to turn the car around to change out the plugs stuck my head towards the back of the motor and I see the plug wire touching the O2 sensor. gave it just a little tug just enough to move the wire away from the O2 and BOOM no more misfire...."facepalm" changed the plugs and moved the wires around a little so it wasn't touching and let the car idle for 30 mins staring at the tach and listening for a misfire....nothing......... SES light went out cars running fine still going to replace the FPR after payday........

It's the little things like that, that make me feel stupid!!!!


I don't know how many hours of reading on how to test this and how to replace that I spent and it took all of 5 seconds to fix the problem with no tools and 0 sleep in two days

At least you solved it before you bought more parts.

I bought a full set of coils and numerous other parts before I fixed my missing issues.

I will bet its your Mass Air Flow Sensor. Mine went bad and acted just like yours, expect the car would randomly stall out and not restart till you turned it all the way off.

For mine, they tapped it with a screwdriver while the car was idling and it will stall, thats how they finally figured it out. So I would suggest you try the same and see what happens.

problem is solved?

Hmmm I have the same problem. But I have on 05 GP. Mine threw an O2 sensor code and I replaced that and still the same thing. Later I might check to see if the spark plug wire is touching it. The O2 sensor could have been doing it before and now its touching. I also cleaned my throttle body and it seemed to help a little. Sometime this week were gonna hook it up to a scan tool and drive it down the road and see what we find.

yes problem solved but I still plan on replacing the FPR

I haven't had any misfires since the code is gone

the only other problem I got right now is the buzzing noise from the lights I mean its the noise that you get when you pull the fuse for the DRL/ twilight sensor thingy

the fuse is still in there the DRL thingy is unplugged and the noise is completely random when the lights are on at night ..... for now I just turn up the radio

thanks for all the input guys

Have a great day

I'm going to work so I can yell at my boss

buy an injector from ZZP.

a single should be cheap from them.