mustang stalling and what should one pay for a mustang

[T2urtle]

got a friend with a 98 mustang 4.6L V8.

car stalls near idle but drives like it should when i accelerate. feels great no power lost or anything.

this thing has about 120k on it. my intintal thought was a loose/broke vac line and 2nd i would like to test the idle air control. How would one go about that. Any other simple fixes for this stang?


I actually might buy this off him. I wanted to offer him 2k but i'm not sure if its a lowball or not. He was considering trading it in and taking w/e the dealershiped offer i wanted to just go right above that. Its a 98GT with 110k miles AUTO. No major dings. paint is a little faded. Not much maintence done to it. owned it since new. Had a another put in at 80k for reasons i forgot. Any key points of common failures and bad parts on this car?

 

[3chordcharlie]

Just ask him if you can have it for whatever the dealer offers him. Then there's no worries about ripping him off, and it will be a good deal for you, since no dealer is very interested in a 12 year old automatic mustang GT.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Not much maintenance done to it? Why? Did the guy at least do oil changes regularly? If not, I wouldn't buy it.

 

[Eli]

120k and "not much maintenance done"?

Run away.

 

[fbrdphreak]

"had another <BLANK> put in at 80K" - another WHAT put in it?

If you just want something to drive and don't much care about it, okay. But a car this old without religious maintenance is going to have a number of issues which may drive you mad trying to solve, including this idle stalling.

I'd say pass, but it's your sanity and money.

 

[Raduque]

Pull the idle air control valve, spray some WD40 in it and work the piston back and forth with a small screwdriver - be careful not to damage the seal. If this stops the idle stalling, replace it, because it will go bad again in about 10k miles or so. It was $30-35 for my truck, so it shouldn't be much different for the 4.6.

 

[StageLeft]

Not much MAINTENANCE or not much REPAIRS done to it? Auto is freaking tragic on that car. I weep. Otherwise if it's in good shape $2k is a good price for a GT, even one that old with those miles.

 

[SonicIce]

does it make a loud humming noise when it tries to stall?

 

[thedarkwolf]

The 96-98 mustang v8s are weak and auto bleh so no don't buy it. 99s got a big bump in power.

 

[AMCRambler]

Vacuum leaks aren't too hard to troubleshoot. Spritz some carb cleaner around the intake manifold hoses and if you hear the engine rpms shoot up, then it sucked in the carb cleaner through the leaky hose. You'll know which hose to replace.

You want to make sure you're misting it when you spray it too. So it's airborne.

 

[AMCRambler]

Missed the part about the IAC valve. I think the only way to test that is with a volt meter. The numbers you need to find are going to be pretty specific though. I'd recommend picking up a Chiltons or Haynes manual for the car if you're going to do it.

 

[T2urtle]

sorry about the 80k replace thing.

it had a new engine put in at 80k. rod knock or something. he paid a small shop to replace the motor.

I know he did the oil changes on it every 3-4k. He told me a couple of minor problems that i'm not worried about. I kinda just wanted to pick up another car for fun. Its there kbb says about 2k trade-in. I know kbb is always wrong and etc. I figure he might up and w/e the dealership offers him like $500-1000 to make some money off me. Because honestly i would if i was in his shoes. If they offered $1000 i would tell him i got offered 1400-1500 and give me a little more then that and see how it goes.



But about the problem. he made it sound like a vac leak. Then i kinda read ford and the IAC motor/valve sticks a lot. Cleaning it should in most cases fix the problem. I think the problem all of sudden just happen.

I always wanted to try out a V8 american car to see what the freaking hype is about. Yea its a auto. not exactly a prime example of american muscle. But i wanted to see the reason behind " no replacement for displacement" I know my g35 and cousin IS350 will be faster but maybe the TQ on this will make it FEEL faster. Most likely keep for it for year and sell for what i paid. I really want my hands on a LSx car

 

[Raduque]

But about the problem. he made it sound like a vac leak. Then i kinda read ford and the IAC motor/valve sticks a lot. Cleaning it should in most cases fix the problem. I think the problem all of sudden just happen.

I always wanted to try out a V8 american car to see what the freaking hype is about.

Yea, just follow the steps I posted to deal with the IAC valve, but you'll want to eventually replace it if it is bad. The 4.6l V8's have them on the throttle body, iirc.

As for what the hype is about with an American V8 car, well I really only have one word for you: torque. Tire-shredding, pavement-pounding, kick-you-in-the-chest torque. The more the merrier. Once you try it, you'll be hooked.

 

[franksta]

My F-150 with the same 4.6L has done the same idling thing in the past and seems to be flaring up again today as it turns out. Previously I could crank the motor and it would sit in park and idle all day. Then if I put it in gear and gave it gas to go when coming back down to a stop it would stall. What I ended up doing was running some seafoam in it and also cleaning the throttle body and intake with some car spray.

I also had the idle air control valve go out previously. When that happened the motor would not idle. I would crank it over and as soon as I let go of the key it would die. If I held my foot on the gas it would start up and run just fine but letting go of the accelerator pedal would kill it.

 

[angry hampster]

IAC valve/motor.

 

[Sluggo]

Rockauto has the IAC for that car for $35 bucks and it should only take you about 15 minutes to install it, its easy.

If you can find the IAC under the hood, try tapping it with a screwdriver handle a few times and see if that temporarily corrects the idle issues.

http://www.moddedmustangs.com/cleaning-your-iac.html

 

[T2urtle]

if it was mines i would say clean it but its not so obviously i'm going to hit it a couple of times if it gets better i'll recommend him replace that.



So TQ is what gets people hooked huh... i should see what my G35 puts out and compare it. People brag about these american V8 like they are god like.

I like that fact that you put in about $2k and it runs 12's without a problem. Plus its 20 year old technology just slightly modded so, learn one learn them all pretty much. I'll see if he wants to sell it to me. I'm more of a fan of the 99 body style for but $2k i'll live with it.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Well if you do buy it after getting it running right replace the heads with 99+ heads. I'm not up to snuff on the 96-98s other than knowing they suck and its mainly the heads that are the problem. If you want to experience all that v8 hype they are a bad choice. Even the 99+ models don't feel all that torquey compared to the older and slower 5.0l imo.