Replace IAVC motor only?

[NycQX4]

Hi,

Last week my 02 QX4 stalled while driving on the highway. After I pulled over to the side, the car would start but can not hold idle. Luckily I had a code reader and reset the ECU. The car started and but had a high bouncy idle between 1500 and 2000.

I drove the car to my parking garage and did some research. It seems likely the IACV is the culprit and if left unchanged, can damage the ECU. At my garage, I did the idle air relearn procedure and now the idle is fine. My question is, should I go ahead and replace the IACV anyway or just replace the IACV motor or should I wait till the problem happens again?

My concern is that I have a hard time removing the throttle body bolts. So, I’m afraid replacing the whole IACV asembly might break something. Looking at the assembly, it seems the motor can be removed and that’s the part that seems to cause the ECU Problem. Is there any issue if I just replace the motor and switch for the IACV?

Thank you ahead of time.

[04pathse]

I might be wrong but in your case I am pretty sure you would not need to change the IACV itself but you should replace the IACV gasket but will still involve you removing the IACV .

What happens is as the vehicles age, the gasket gets brittle and fails and begins leaking coolant and shorts out the electronics in the IACV which then can short out the ECM. So if you replace the IACV gasket it will prevent the issue from happening.

You can get the gasket on ebay for around $8 shipped.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Idle-Air-Contr ... 1925539640

[NycQX4]

Thanks for the answer. I decided to go ahead and replace the whole assembly. Managed to get the throttle body off with a little elbow grease.

The idle runs a little high now, about 1000-1050. I get the high idle code, p507. For some strange reason, I can no longer run the idle relearn. I tried the one that used the first time from this forum and also followed the one from EC-69. Not sure what I am doing wrong.