Engine at idle chuggs......
 

Ok guys...i have a 92 ES300 with 160k miles. When the car is on idle, it seems like the engine chuggs...and trys to pull away....it does it intermittently. Sometimes if it senses that the idle is too low, it jumps back up to 800, 900rpm...anyone have this problem? Help....

Idle air control motor or throttle position sensor.

It could be that the throttle body or fuel injectors are dirty.

Or it could be that there is an small air leak in the hose that goes from the air box to throttle body.

steviej

Thank you for the info, but I have one other question.....are any of those things expensive to fix? Thank you for any info you have in advance.

I figured out the problem.....one of my spark plug wires was almost burnt through....not sure why, but we replaced that one wire and replaced all of the spark plugs and all is well. No more chugging....i believe I was driving only with 5 cylinders!!! geeze!

Only one? Why didn't you replace the others?

I just didn't want to spend anymore money on it....everything cost 90 bucks for 6 new bosch spark plugs (non-platinum) and one spark plug wire. I am selling the car in a week so I figure I don't want to spend any unessasary money on it.

I bet the wire was touching a metal part of the engine, that caused the insulation to weaken due to heat, and then it arced. Sounds like you have the situation well in hand.