I have a 2002 Ford Escape with about 120,000 miles on it. Since late summer, it has occasionally been stalling while idling. It never does while in motion, although it will occasionally kind of shake or sputter, which corresponds with the RPM’s dropping all the way down, then after a second it will kick back on. It also seems like the acceleration is pretty sluggish. It always starts again and runs pretty well as long as I don’t have to stop. It only happens occasionally.
I took it to my local mechanic, who found a bulletin to have the computer reflashed. I took it to the dealership to do this, but they said it has all the updates for that bulletin.
It only happens occasionally, so I tried to ride it out, but eventually we took it back to our mechanic. After a lot of test drives, he was finally able to replicate the problem and replaced a coil. This seemed to fix it for about a week, acceleration and everything seemed all better, but then it stalled again and feels the same driving as before.
I called the mechanic, but he didn’t see any point in bringing it back in and didn’t think the replaced coil was probably related to the stalling anyway. I’m guessing it’s something with the fuel system, but I don’t really have any ideas.
I’d check the IAC. It might just need to be cleaned.
Thanks, I cleaned it last night. It didn’t seem overly dirty, but we’ll see if it helps.