03 Windstar Stalling

[snicker01]

Hello
We are a one vehicle family so I hope that someone can provide some insight on my problem. Our 03 Windstar was running rough and diagnostics indicated plugs / wires were bad on cylinder 1 and 2. We changed out the plugs and wires on all of the cylinders with Motorcraft SP-486 plugs and Omni Spark OE wires. The van runs great down the road now but a new issue has come up now.
It will stall out during idle.
When in gear at a light I have to power brake it to keep it running.
And the battery light came on right before I got it home last night.
Gurus of vehicles please help.
Thanks

[hatethewindstar]

Originally Posted by snicker01

Hello
We are a one vehicle family so I hope that someone can provide some insight on my problem. Our 03 Windstar was running rough and diagnostics indicated plugs / wires were bad on cylinder 1 and 2. We changed out the plugs and wires on all of the cylinders with Motorcraft SP-486 plugs and Omni Spark OE wires. The van runs great down the road now but a new issue has come up now.
It will stall out during idle.
When in gear at a light I have to power brake it to keep it running.
And the battery light came on right before I got it home last night.
Gurus of vehicles please help.
Thanks

here any tapping noise

[snicker01]

Nope. All sounds normal.

[MARZBX157]

Sounds to me like the IAC valve (Idle Air Control Valve) is either dirty or bad. It's pretty simple to clean, just remove two bolts and then spray WD-40 inside the valve to rinse out the dirt.
The IAC keeps the engine from shutting down when in idle or turning the steering wheel in low speed conditions like parking by allowing air through the valve. Do a search in this forum on the IAC and you will find lots of info on this procedure. Good Luck.

[olopezm]

Second on the IAC problem, give it a good clean and take a test drive.

About the battery I would get the alternator tested at any autoparts store, they can diagnose it without taking it out from the car.

Best regards,

Oscar.

[mark_gober]

I'll offer you another alternative. I believe that you've got a vacuum leak that you caused when changing the spark plugs. This is a very common deal...I've done it myself. The rear plugs are difficult to get to and you can pull off vacuum hoses reaching around. If my memory serves me correctly, I popped mine off right where the air intake meets the intake manifold. It took me several days to find it and it was very frustrating.

I might be wrong on this, but the IAC will typically only cause problems when the engine is cold. Thats what mine did. Once it was warm, my IAC didn't cause me any grief.

I'd check your vacuum fittings around the drivers side of the motor and also the passenger side rear side of the motor. There is a rubber fitting that has dual hard plastic tubes connecting to the intake manifold here. They are used to provide vacuum to to your heater/air conditioner. They are easily knocked loose.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Mark

[serge_saati]

Cylinder 1 and 2 are not on the same pair of coil's wire. When you got a misfire on two different pair of cylinders on an EDIS vehicle, it's not caused by plugs/coil/wire. It's often caused my vacuum leak issue, like Mark said but can also be caused by camshaft sensor/synchronizer problem, large oil consumption issue, low compression, bad PCM or EGR issues. When you press on the gas, it still sputter?

About the battery light, it could be caused by low rpm. When rpm drops, alternator voltage drops and can cause the charging light cluster to light on during certain time until it runs better.