When cleaning the IAC valve there is a metal circlular piece held down by 3 screws. Are you supposed to take this piece off and clean it as well, or just clean around it and spray thru the holes in the metal piece.

I did not remove the piece, but did clean all around it and double checked the voltage on the exterior plastic piece and all read 30.7+ ohms. I re-connected everything just like the FAQ stated and used Air Intake cleaner to clean it all.

When I started the car back up, it again cut off. I revved the engine to hopefully burn off any excess cleaner fluid which resulted in a lotof smoke from my tailpipe. The engine eventually idles for a few minutes, but really really hard to the point that a ratchet on top of the air filter began to move. The engine than cut off, but I did hear a ticking noise. I looked thru other posts and noticed that others have heard the ticking noise and although a nuisance from the other posts it did not appear to be a major problem.

I contacted the local dealership and spoke to one of the service reps and they said they could not think of anything else other than hooking it up to the diagnostic machine to locate the problem or replacing the IAC valve. At 319+ new I am looking for other options..Does anyone have any other advice, comments, or directions....I am not too knowledgeable when it comes to the engine, but I can do almost anything with tools

 

I took the brass bezel with the three screws off and cleaned it. Also, I removed the stepper motor and FICV valves,disassembled them and cleaned them, as well as the passages in the aluminum block they're attached to. If I remember right, in order for the components to be removed, the aluminum metering block had to be put in a vise on it's sides (carefully), then a wrench could be applied to the hexagonal sides of the stepper motor and FICV's to get them unthreaded. There was a lot of built up chit on the stepper motor cone.

 

I removed the bass bezel w/the 3 screws and cleaned it along with spraying thru the plunger to make sure anything in there got cleaned/sprayed as well.

I did not remove the hexagon tubes on either side attached to the pink and purple clips (96 GXE). Do I need to remove these and clean them as well?

I put the IAC back on after futher cleaning it, and I am still getting the rough idling and choking out. I did attempt to adjust the idle with the screw on the aluminum frame, and it did not help as well.

I ran the codes again to see if anything else was at fault, and the code came back 0505 which means all normal.

 

The two rectangular tubes on the sides of the metering block are the FICV valves for controlling the engine idle when the AC is on. The center component between the FICV valves is the IACV stepper motor that controls your idle when the engine goes form cold to full warmed up. The motor has a plastic cone that mates to a rubber seat in the aluminum metering block. These two parts were dirty on mine (after122k) and required a thorough cleaning. The stepper motor cone had hard carbon deposits that needed to be removed with a dental pick.
If your car is still idling rough after all that, I'd replace the PCV valve and check for vacuum leaks.

 

I cleaned the whole valve...The car started running again and is not idling hard. I noticed today though at certain times when I would stop at a light or stop at a corner stop sign, the car would idle real low as if it was going to cut off. Than later this evening the check engine light came on again. The error codes were:
0105, 0204, 0504, 0304..

Speed sensor, Idle valve, knock sensor, and the A/T signal.

Is there anything else at all I can do before taking it to the dealer?

I have checked the voltage on the IAC plastic connection all connections read 30.7 ohms, I cleaned the whole unit thoroughly and looks brand new (laugh)...I tightened all of the screws and I read a post that might mention tightening the 10mm bolt, and I double checked that as well and tightened it too.

Any other ideas? Anyone...

 

The sensor might be goign bad no matter how clean it may look. I'm having mine replaced in the next day or so as well.