So yesterday i cleaned my spectra air filter, cleaned it off nice but i forgot to oil it and i put it on the car after it was semi-dry (thinking it was going to dry overnight) But i had to move my car and forgot that it was still semi-wet. started the car this morning idled ok warming up, started ok, but when i put the car in park the RPMs go from 700 (at idle in gear) then when i shift to park is goes down to 450 then jumps to around 600+-50RPM then back down to 400+-50 RPM and jumps back up. It keeps doing this only when in park, in gear it idles fine. Is there a chance i got the MAF sensor wet? Car has 130k and as far as i know the MAF or IAC motor was not replaced. IDLE VAC reads 22-24 in of vac so thats normal, any ideas on how to test this? Thanks
-Tony

 

well now it wont even hunt for an idle...put it in park and the car stalls and dies out, but when you start it while its in park after it just died cranks over NP and idles fine right at 700 RPM, then move the gear from park to drive, then back to park it stalls. WTF??

UPDATE: I repalced the breather hose thats routed from the valve cover to the intake piping with one of those kewl filter things, the car doesnt like that much. No codes for MAF or IAC. So im thinking once i replace the hose all should be well. Update again around 530

UPDATE: Does anyone elses valve cover (where the vent tube leads to the intake piping) vent out air? All my buddys cars actually suck in air from there while mine actually pushes air out, but then when i rev it it starts to pull air in. The pcv valve works normal. Just thought this was odd?

 

rear is the PCV that allows pressure out of the valve cover into the intake manifold, and the front driver side ventilation is just to shoot the remaining excess blowby into the intake tract that the rear pcv couldnt get rid of. It shouldnt matter how it is.. with a air filter or recirculating back into the intake. I let mine go back into the intake and it doesnt get any oil in the intake. If youre getting oil into the intake your rings have major blowby.

 

take some maf cleaner and clean the maf, before you replace either. i wouldnt necessarily think that your maf is bad but there are some threads out here that have a lot to do with the iac motor. the late model lancers seem to have a problem with them and cause this issue.

give that a try
josh

 

Im deff going to clean it and give it a shot! Thanks man ill let you know, it seems better now that i took off the little filter and re-attached it to the intake again, but ill update it as soon asi clean it.

 

def keep us updated!

 

Well, i cleaned out the MAF, the honeycomb part looked good, however the other sensor part (the peice thats hangs on a wire) looked clean as well, but underneath where the wire thing hangs was alot of dirt, i cleaned it off with a q-tip and ill start her up tomorrow and see if this is the problem! Expect an update tomorrow morning!
-Tony

 

UPDATE: It seems so far so good, i might have lucked out with just a dirty MAF sensor!

 

ya that will definitely do it. glad you got it sorted out.

 

Yep, but now i just discovered i have excessive up and down play in the front drive shaft to the trans..the planitary gear is going...this means a re-build :-( Recently i was in an accident where my car was parked and some drunk lady hit it breaking the front drive shaft the rim/tire/hub/bearings/ and lower control arm. Im going to call the insurance and see if they will fix it under un-seen damage. The tech here said the shaft more than likly was pushed into the trans when it was struck. I hope they cover this because the trans was fine until the accident :-(

 

You're right theres a lot of mention of the IAC, but I've never actually heard of one going bad. It always ends up being the sticky throtttle cable in hot weather issue.

 

I have had that happen also! It sticks, but it doesnt do it really anymore!