My Taurus with 120,000 has some sort of engine problem. During town driving
the engine will just start racing when I want to stop at a stop sign. Then it
will hesitate to take off. One mechanic said I need a new transmission
another said I have an engine performance problem. He put instruments on but
couldn’t get the problem to surface. This is a safety issue too
I would suggest replacing the Idle Air Control valve.
The IAC valve controls the engine’s idle speed under all conditions.
This valve can malfunction where the engine idle speed goes very high.
And when this valve malfunctions, it very rarely turns on the Check Engine light.
A co-worker had the IAC valve fail in their Taurus. Only in their case, it failed while pulling into a gas station. And the vehicle took out two gas pumps.
Tester
Thanks, Tester, I will definitely check that out. It’s been a long road.
I had a Taurus that did that, whenever Id brake it seems to keep accelerating and when I accelerated it took a while and kicked off. The problem that it was low on Transmission fluid. Try adding transmission fluid on your car & check its level, it should have a dilstick to measure.
Always check fluid first, then add if needed.
classic symptom of a bad idle air control valve, IMO
By chance, if you buy it from the Ford dealer, also make sure to buy the gasket. Ford is weird, in that they tend to selll gaskets separately for such items, forcing you to head back to the dealer. If you buy aftermarket, it’ll most likely come with a new gasket in the box
It is not uncommon to have a bad iac valve, yet have no fault code and no check engine light
The hesitation when first taking off might be a transmission problem, but I doubt the transmission is the cause of the high idle rpm. For that I’d guess the same as the folks above, the idle air control gadget is sticking. That device helps to prevent the engine from stalling in certain situations, like when the coolant is cold, or the headlights are turned on/ac is turned on, causing a drag on the engine from the alternator or ac compressor. It’s just supposed to boost the idle rpm a little, and only for those situations. Like any other part in a car, it occasionally fails and needs to be replaced.