I'm working on an unstable / high idle on my Stratus, so today I pulled the IAC and it appears to be fully extended and does not move at all. Should it?

I went down to Autozone and compared my IAC to one of theirs, and the one they had was fully retracted

Back about 13 years ago I had an '87 Pontiac Sunbird and I distinctly remember pulling the Idle Air Control valve and I was reasonably sure that I could easily press it in. The only real difference was the Sunbird was throttle body injected and my Stratus is multi-port injected but I don't think that would have anything to do with the IAC.
Basically, how can I tell if my IAC is working or not without having to buy one?

 

if you cant move it by hand .. and its stuck.. get a new one.. you did your homework.. you compaired it.. it wasnt right.. so replace it

 

Well here's my problem. If it isn't supposed to move freely, then extended was just the position it was in when I shut the car off. The retracted position of the one at Autozone may just be the position they send it out in.

The one at Autozone didn't seem to move either, that's my problem.

Money is tight and the 50-60$ wasted could mean not having money to buy groceries or gas money later this month.

 

It's gonna be hard to check IAC operation without a scan tool or IAC tester. They don't fail all that often, but they do get carboned up and stick. Clean it real good with carb cleaner and see what happens.

 

I think I figured it out. when I was putting the IAC back in, I noticed that all 4 wires had insulation that had come off in a way that the wires could easily short. (The insulation was a bit crumbly. I didn't notice it before because I disconnected the IAC from behind and let the wire drop down, without seeing it) I put super glue on the insulation edges to prevent further crumbling away and coated the copper with super glue as well. Then I taped each wire with electrical tape and then taped the bundle.

I took it for a 30-40 mile test drive and the idle stayed smooth the whole time. I'm guessing the short caused the IAC to erratically move in and out. Now in neutral it idles about 850 and in drive it idles around 600.

Also for future reference I was directed by someone else to the Autozone site where they actually show the Ohms reading for the IAC. Between 1 and 4 it should be about 32 to 55 ohms and between 2 and 3 it should also be about 32 to 55.

Mine read 50 on both, so that shows me the coils were good at least.

 

FYI. I think I got it fixed. The insulation on the IAC wiring had flaked off and the IAC wires were rubbing causing the IAC to probably go in and out randomly.

 

The IAC is a stepper motor so you will not be able to manually move it in and out or it will be broken. Usually just cleaning them and the housing they sit in is good enough. Goodwork finding the wiring issue too.