NO HEAT, LOW IDLE, CAR SHAKES, wINDSHIELD WASHER MOTOR NOT WORKING

[97 Mystique]

I hope someone can help me out and give me a few pointers, I have a whole list of repairs that I would like to try to tackle on my own. I drive a 1997 Mercury Mystique, 4 cyl., same as a Ford Contour.
1) When I am driving, the front of the car vibrates, when I make a left turn the vidrating lessens, but if I make a right turn it gets worse. Is this problem due to worn bearings, or is it something else. I also noticed that my passenger side lower balljoint rubber boot is torn, but I am pretty sure it got torn after the shaking started. And to fix this problem will it be ok or difficult.
2)My heater has been acting up lately. Most of the time it will blow out cold air, but every once in a while it will decide to blow out hot just to spite me. There is enough coolant in the car. does this sound like a stuck thermostate, and are they easy to change?
3)My engine is idleing too low, how do I fix this. When I start the car sometimes on cold days especialy the car will die out right after it is turned on. Also when I rev the engine up to 4000rpm while I am in park it fluctuates in sound every second-RRrrRRrrRRrrRRrrRRrrRRrr. What does this mean, if anything?
4)I let my relative borrow my car for a couple hours. When they were going to come back to drop the car off they realized they left a light on and drained the battery, so they gave it a jump. After that I have had a couple more things going on with my car.
A)Windshield Wipers-when I spray the fluid on, the wipers no longer wipe. Also when I put it in intermitant it does not work. But if I put it on either speed of continous wipe, then it work. WHY is this happening
B)The courtisy foot light on the passenger side will now sometimes stay on while I am driving, very distracting. (Before the jump,and to this day my driver side only turns on when it feels like)
C)My defrost does not work and the swith light by my dash does not come on.
Any suggestions as to what I might to try to remidy all of these problems would be helpful.
Thank You, Jon

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I may be able to help you with point number 2. I had similar heating problems on my 96 contour with a 2.0 Zetec engine. Check or have someone flush your heater core. It is a important part of the circulation and on higher milage cars, sediment plugs the core and cold air blows out. Any hot coolant that might get through is causing the heat from time to time. Fix by extending the core hoses out of the engine compartment and flush with a garden hose each direction. If considerable effort is required to hold the gardenhose on the core hose extentions, the core was plugged and it will flush out with water pressure. Hope this helps. As far as electrical problems, I haven't had any with 3 contours i've owned. P.S., don't let anyjone borrow your car, more problems always show up, and they are never willing to offer to pay for repairs. You pay the fuel, license, insurance, not them.

[Renegade2k]

the vibration sounds like your pass side wheel bearing.
You will have to get the wheels off the ground to check. Although sometimes the bearing makes noise without being loose you can tell if it is bad by wobbling the wheel up and down. You should check for a bad ball joint while you are at it. That can be checked the same way while looking at the joint for movement. Also you can put a pry bar between the lower control arm and the steering knuckle. look for vertical movement. If you pry down and the other side goes up it is ok.

Ask for the low idle... I just had to clean my Mass Air Flow Sensor. it is located in the tube between the air box and the engine in the intake hose. look inside the little hole at the wires. One of mine was all fuzzy. Discolored will give same affect. Intake cleaner or carb cleaner will fix this. You may have to spray it multiple times. DON'T TOUCH THE WIRES. You could damage them and have to buy a new one $100 or more.