I recently bought an '86 Taurus with the 3.0 V-6
engine which was running fine until recently...now
it idles very slowly, then speeds up, then slows down,
and often dies.
Any ideas?

Thank you

 

Need much more history on the vehicle, but the long and short of it:

1) Vacuum leak
2) Dirty throttle body---must be cleaned with the Ford approved cleaner, or
3) Bad idle air control valve which is located on the throttle body.

Check autolibrary.org below in my signature for more information and let us know what you find.

 

it might be the idle control motor besides the things joe said

 

Thanks, guys--
I removed the idle air control valve and cleaned it
and it's running much better now!