# 1996 Jeep Cherokee Cold Idle Problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** cherokee, jeep\ **Created:** [November 7, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1996-jeep-cherokee-cold-idle-problem/57305 "2010-11-07T23:50:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![justsomeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@justsomeguy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/justsomeguy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1996-jeep-cherokee-cold-idle-problem/57305/1 "2010-11-07T23:50:19Z")
My 1996 6cyl 4.0L Jeep Cherokee has been having a problem for a little while now. When the car hasn’t been driven for awhile (and not every time) when starting the engine, while in park, if I let my foot off the gas the car will stall, but if I rev the engine several times then quickly pop it into gear the car idles down to a normal idle and runs fine from then on in. I can even put the car back into park and it will still idle fine. I have shut the engine off to test very shortly after and tried to start back up but the problem happens again. Its only if I have driven it for awhile that it will idle without stalling on the start up. Recently for some reason It has bin sort of a stuttered start up. I don’t know if this is a sign of the problem getting worse. Any help would really be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Tester](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/tester/32/15976_2.png) [@Tester](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Tester)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1996-jeep-cherokee-cold-idle-problem/57305/2 "2010-11-08T00:04:24Z")
The problem might be with a defective/dirty Idle Air Control valve. The IAC valve controls the engine idle at all conditions. If the IAC valve is defective/dirty it can fail to go the the proper position for the idle condition. Tester