Sunfire Rough Idle

its my mothers '02 sunfire...

just started happening recently...

it started with when she came out of reverse and put it into drive, the car would stumble/studder

now today, she said when she was at a light, it would be studdering like it was gonna stall, and the RPMs would be bouncing....but when she started driving it would be fine

whats the sound like? misfire maybe? I remember one lab we did in college, at a higher RPM would would start pulling off plug wires and the thing sounded fine.....but when u let it drop to idle it would sound like shit

Pulling wires while it's running? Bet that was a shocking experience, doesn't sound like that would be good for the motor either.

Sounds like another dirty IAC (Idle Air Control) valve, it's located on the throttle body, not sure where on that year but it should be easy to get to and remove. If you do it yourself just clean the hole where it goes and the valve itself, get as much gunk out of it as you can.

honestly try it, we did it on a V8, and its not bad for the engine....it could be damaging to your cat tho, so I wouldnt recommend it

the engine has enough momentum(sp) at higher RPM to keep going...

but anyway my father took it to a dealer before I had a chance to look at it....turns out it was a buster spark plug wire, hence the reason for only sputtering every now and then

the dealer wanted $500 for chaning all 4 plugs/wires

bullshit....doing it myself (obviously), you'd have to be nuts not 2