95 850GLT threatening stall

Hi all,

My 1995 850GLT w/ about 220K did something weird last night: shortly
after pulling away from a red light (and with the engine warm) the
throttle started acting weird: the car would idle fine but if I gave
it any gas it would bog down and threaten to stall (engine coughing
and sputtering).

Once I backed off the gas it would wheeze a bit and then return to
normal idle.

Under the hood I repeated the experience by twisting the throttle body
and nearly stalling. Then, suspecting an air issue, I gave the
accordion hose leading from the airbox to the throttle body a squeeze
and the engine revs shot up to 2500 (as reported by the passenger) and
then settled back to normal idle. After that it worked fine.

So my question is: does this sound like something that might happen in
connection with the adjacent MAF sensor or are its symptoms completely
different? Is there something else I should pay close attention to or
inspect now in the light of day?

Thanks,
blurp

blurp wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My 1995 850GLT w/ about 220K did something weird last night: shortly
> after pulling away from a red light (and with the engine warm) the
> throttle started acting weird: the car would idle fine but if I gave
> it any gas it would bog down and threaten to stall (engine coughing
> and sputtering).
>
> Once I backed off the gas it would wheeze a bit and then return to
> normal idle.
>
> Under the hood I repeated the experience by twisting the throttle body
> and nearly stalling. Then, suspecting an air issue, I gave the
> accordion hose leading from the airbox to the throttle body a squeeze
> and the engine revs shot up to 2500 (as reported by the passenger) and
> then settled back to normal idle. After that it worked fine.
>
> So my question is: does this sound like something that might happen in
> connection with the adjacent MAF sensor or are its symptoms completely
> different? Is there something else I should pay close attention to or
> inspect now in the light of day?
>
> Thanks,
> blurp


I've seen this behavior with a bad fuel pump relay, there was enough
residual pressure to idle, but let in any more air and it leans out and
stalls.

Squeezing the air hose causing the RPM to increase is odd though, first
thing I would do is check carefully for splits in any plumbing between
the air mass meter and throttle body, and look for vacuum hoses that
have cracked or otherwise fallen off. The car is old enough for things
like that to start happening.