I drive a 2002 Mercury Cougar, and recently I've been having problems with the car idling low, and then stalling.
The first time this issue happened, it was only a problem when I had the car in park. I took it to a mechanic, and was told that my intake manifold gasket was leaking. I had them replaced, but had to take the car back the very next day because I was still having the same problem, only worse this time, as now it was idling low and almost stalling even when the car was in drive whenever I was completely stopped. When I got it back they said they "think they got it this time" and didn't charge me anything. The woman at the front desk didn't seem to actually know what they did, and since they didn't charge me I just assumed they had messed something up the first time and fixed it.
My car ran fine for about a week, then one day I left it running while I ran into a gas station, and when I came back out with was idling low and shaking again and stalled when I reversed out of the spot. This time I took it to a different shop, since I was frustrated with the previous one. Basically, they told me that it was still my intake manifold gaskets, and that the previous shop hadn't done the work properly. I had them redo the same work I had just had done. I don't think they were trying to scam me, seeing as they weren't pushy about having the work done there, and asked me if I'd rather take it back to the other shop to be worked on again (most likely free of charge) or if I wanted them to do it, and to try and get my money back from the other place.
I picked it up on Friday. My brother drove it to work last night, and he sits in his car on his lunch breaks. He told me that he turned it on for heat (Illinois, it got pretty cold here again the last couple days), that it ran fine for about 10 minutes or so, then the RPMs started dropping and eventually it stalled and shut off. However, it ran fine on his way home. No low idling at stop lights or anything.
I'm pretty frustrated at this point. I find it unlikely that two different shops messed up the work. Could something else be wrong? Maybe because it has something to do with the cold? Even though this only started in February, and it'd been cold since November and I hadn't had any trouble before that?
I'm going to take it back to the second shop tomorrow. Any insight would be helpful.
The first time this issue happened, it was only a problem when I had the car in park. I took it to a mechanic, and was told that my intake manifold gasket was leaking. I had them replaced, but had to take the car back the very next day because I was still having the same problem, only worse this time, as now it was idling low and almost stalling even when the car was in drive whenever I was completely stopped. When I got it back they said they "think they got it this time" and didn't charge me anything. The woman at the front desk didn't seem to actually know what they did, and since they didn't charge me I just assumed they had messed something up the first time and fixed it.
My car ran fine for about a week, then one day I left it running while I ran into a gas station, and when I came back out with was idling low and shaking again and stalled when I reversed out of the spot. This time I took it to a different shop, since I was frustrated with the previous one. Basically, they told me that it was still my intake manifold gaskets, and that the previous shop hadn't done the work properly. I had them redo the same work I had just had done. I don't think they were trying to scam me, seeing as they weren't pushy about having the work done there, and asked me if I'd rather take it back to the other shop to be worked on again (most likely free of charge) or if I wanted them to do it, and to try and get my money back from the other place.
I picked it up on Friday. My brother drove it to work last night, and he sits in his car on his lunch breaks. He told me that he turned it on for heat (Illinois, it got pretty cold here again the last couple days), that it ran fine for about 10 minutes or so, then the RPMs started dropping and eventually it stalled and shut off. However, it ran fine on his way home. No low idling at stop lights or anything.
I'm pretty frustrated at this point. I find it unlikely that two different shops messed up the work. Could something else be wrong? Maybe because it has something to do with the cold? Even though this only started in February, and it'd been cold since November and I hadn't had any trouble before that?
I'm going to take it back to the second shop tomorrow. Any insight would be helpful.
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