Hi Guys and Gals! Gotta Newbie here. Would appreciate any help on the
subject of my moms MGM. It is a 2000, I don't know what size engine.
With a cold start it will bearly idle and shut down. When it does idle, it revs and then bring itself down to a normal Idle. It has recently been
stalling on her during nomal road use and not starting. No Cel...No codes..
The air suspension has also been acting up....either not pumping up or
lowering and lifting too much. I've been told that you have to shut the air ride off before towing...Myth? I don't know. But my stepfather did have it towed once. They are not financially equiped to put a lot of money into this car, but have people that could do the work for them; So any suggestions would really help out.Thanks a bunch for your time.

 

you have a 4.6L engine in a 2000 model. You may just need to clean the idle air control motor. it should be mounted to the side of the throttle body. They tend to get built up with carbon deposits. regular throttle body/carb cleaner should do the trick.

 

Thanks Sylmer. Combined with the research that I've done, all indications
point toward what you are saying. Thanks for the confirmation. Is there
a technique to cleaning the IAC with the carb cleaner? As far as the air
suspension goes, it does it's job it just leaks down over night; sometimes
it will hold for two or three days, but it is definately leaking down so she's got a hole in the line or something somewhere. I know they make conversion kits for this, but it may be cheaper to find the leak. This
is a kool site. Thanks for all your help.

 

basically just open the throttle all the way (with the car off and the air intake hose removed) and just hose it out. you can also take the IAC off and hose it out directly (which is better, but may require a new gasket). I know that black carbon sludge just poured out of mine that last time I did that and I didn't even remove it from the throttle body. But then, mine's an 88.

 

AS far as the air suspension, short term it may be cheaper to just find and fix the leak, but long term you'll probably be better off converting it to springs..

THe reason behind turning the air suspension off for towin or lifting the car is so that it doesn't try to continually pump up or deflate the bags to level the car.. Nothing worse than jacking one of these cars up with teh suspension turned on, then letting it back down only to find that it sits too low to get the jack out..

If it is an intermittent leak chances are it's the control valve sticking.. Probably wouldn;t be a bad idea to replace the air dryer since most likely it has stopped doing it's job and allowed moisture in the system which may have messed up the control valve..

There's still the possability of a leaking compressor or air bag, non of which is real inexpensive..