My 96 DX (170k miles), manual just started to idle rough and slow when I am stopped (in gear or not). It almost acts like it is going to stall. The car has a fairly new (2 months old) rotor, dist., fuel filter and plugs. I am wondering if I got a bad bunch of gas or is that too simple. The little car always idled a little rough but right now it feels like it is going to shut off. It has not shut off yet but it sure idles slowly... I would hate to adjust something if unneccessary.

Any ideas?
KR

 

Funny, my 1997 started this yesterday. It did this about 4 years ago and I had to clean out the throttle body bypass valve ( not sure the official name ) with GumOut...But a year later the oxy sensor failed..Not sure if the gumout had anything to do with it or not..I may look for a throttle body clearer. Also a great fuel ing cleaner is Techron..You can get it at most retail store now..Use to only be at Chevron. I was a mechanic 15 years ago and have seen cars fail emissions, add techron and drive 100 miles..Then come back and pass. So I might try that first.

 

do a compression test as well.

 

Thanks,
I was thinking it might be bad gas or maybe dirty injectors. I started it up the next morning and it seemed to idle fine. I did not have time to warm it up though. I will be driving it again today so maybe I will figure something better then. Other than the slow idle, it appears to run just fine. It was just acting like it wanted to shut off from lack of air or fuel... I'll look into the valve and the compression.

Thanks
KR

 

rough idle could be caused by your ignition system. That includes spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, etc. Definately check those out.