Engine Idels Erattically And Car Goes By Itself

[smokestak777]

I Have A 96 Ford Thunderbird 3.8l Recently I Was Driving And Felt What I Thought Was The Gas Pedal Move Beneath My Feet By Itself..when This Happend I Noticed My Car Was Hard To Stop,and When It Did Stop As Soon As I Let Off The Brake It Would Go With Out Me Touching The Peadle At All..i Stopped My Car Again, Put It In Park And Noticed The Engine Was Idleing Way Beyond Its Usual Limit..and As You May Guess When I Put It Bck In To Drive I Felt A Jerk Form The Tranny..as If I Had Put It In Drive With The Accelerater Mashed Down..can Anyone Tell Me What May Be Causeing This Problem????? Please?

[TWSNNVA]

I would bet it's a faulty MAF sensor. I had the same problem that you're experiencing with my 94, 4.6L, these both have the same MAF. The car likes to hang out at 1300-1700 rpm, tap the gas and the rpms drop. Disconnect the plug from the MAF and drive the car, the computer will go into a failed state and base airflow on rpm, rather than what the MAF reports. The car will drive horribly for a minute or so, with the rpm dropping to 300 or lower, and the car may stall once or twice, after you drive it for a few minutes it will run as it should. Autozone has the cheapest one I could find it's a remaned cardone. Good luck.

[4ss4s1n]

Yea,thats pretty much it.I was reading recalls a couple days ago and a recall came along that had the exact same description.It affected most 88-97 Thunderbirds and Cougars with the 3.8 and 4.6 liter.Its basically the MAF sensor.You could do that or if you got the car when it was new,the recall might cover it.

[97tbirdman]

may be the throttle sticking if not the MAF. check that as well, some wd40 on the linkage should fix it.

[dkm]

Thank You THANK YOU THANK YOU! I have had this problem for a couple of years now (94 tbird) and have been posting and this is the answer Thank you so much!
DKM

[dkm]

P.S.
Where did you find that recall info?

DKM

[thunderbird muscle]

some times the carpet on my 92 tbird would hold the gas pedal were it raise the rpms enought to be aggrevating

[Titan4]

I had a similar problem in my '89 T-Bird once, but it happened when I applied the brakes while my cruise control was on. I managed to stop at a traffic light, but the car was still trying to go. Turns out that my brake light switch was bad so in addition to it not lighting my brake lights it was also not telling my cruise control to disengage. I think the switch was about $11.00 from the dealer. Mounts right on the brake pedal.