96 2.4 Hesitates 'til warm

[headscrew]

My '96 2.4 starts and idles fine, but once you take it out of park and try to accelerate, it stumbles badly until you let off the gas. Runs fine once it warms up. No check engine light. Been tuned up recently (plugs, boots, air & fuel filters). Whadaya think?

[Ridenour]

Welcome to the forum. The number one cause for this is most likely a dirty Intake Air Control motor; followed by a dirty TPS. I would reccomend cleaning your IAC motor / Throttle body, and if that doesn't make a difference, installing a new Throttle Position Sensor. If you need more info about either, let us know.

[headscrew]

Thanks. I'll give it a shot. What/how should I clean the IAC motor (carb/electronic cleaner)? How much do you think a TPS costs?

[Ridenour]

No problem. To clean your IAC motor, do the following: First, buy a can of throttle body cleaner and some paper towels. It should be held onto the side of the throttle body by two star-bit screws. Remove them, and unplug / remove the IAC motor. First, clean the hell out of your throttle body and the IAC motor cavity left by it when you removed it. Pull up the throttle plate and stick some paper towels in there, and clean the living hell out of the inside of your throttle body and IAC motor cavity, repeatedly cleaning / wiping with throttle body cleaner until everything is clean. Remove the paper towels (make sure you don't leave any in the throttle body!!!). Now time to clean the IAC motor. Make sure you only use throttle body cleaner on the spindle itself - it's too harsh to spray directly into the motor. Just keep spraying / wiping the spindle, and especially the rubber part at the end. After this is clean, put everything back together, and you should be good.

Throttle Position Sensors run 25 to 35 $ from a place like Autozone.

[headscrew]

Thanks again.