I have high idle on a 97 town car with 4.6L sefi. If I unplug the MAF it lopes, I have replaced most of the equipment except ECU, EGR. What may the problem be?

Check the iac idle air control valve or the egr valve which doesnt always need replacing just a simple carb cleaning. If you clean the egr valve replace the o2s it is surely next to go. There can be 2 one on the manifold amd n the other by the cat.

(which engine. ?????)_
as always check all fuses. and scan the ECU for DTCs. first.
there is no need to fix OBD2 cars like 1980 cars (hard rows to hoe)
it can be 2 problems this......
lets fix the easy one first. idle. (and hope for moving issues to fix for free) it idle car is parked, so is 100% safe tests. (not moving)

so it surges at idle.
questions.?
1: hot or cold or both.?
2: low extreme RPM and high at idle.
400 to 800 RPM? surge.
1000 to 2000. what? numbers tell the tale.

first off, idle is the last thing to work right on any engine.

there are many ways to find what is wrong.
fix idle surge way.
i make sure that the engine holds closed LOOP status.
hot idle, if not , i fix that first.
keep in mind if not in closes loop and lean
all lean engine surge and guess what the ISC will add to the surge
because idle is way too slow, so the ECU open the ISC wider
and wider and its still too slow, so the ECU resets the ISC
this cause a worst hunt (surge)
the ECU adjust spark time and the ISC to get 800 rpm. (spec. look up yours)
so say , i see closed loop failed, OBD2 scan page 1
i look at the O2 sensor an its stuck lean.
if stuck lean and it really is (o2 bad?) then its lean and it will surge
.
examples.
1: i find 02 sensor bad, (only effects idle and light steady cruise)
2: i find fuel pressure at 15PSI , hopeless low .
3: i find all injectors clogged. and lean.
4: with MAF EFI, ( i find maf reading too low, (dirty) causing lean.
5: if MAP car, i find the MAP stuck hard high vacuum causing lean.
not knowing what engine you have or the idle hot surge range,
i can not go farther.

the driving bog tells me,
1: scan the ecu ,get DTCs; do that first.
2: clean MAF if car has one, ask how..
3: check fuel pressure.


my guess is engine is lean. and starving for fuel all the time.
cept WOT.

MAF cars starve for fuel if there are any vacuum leaks.
MAP cars do opposite, they race fast with 100% full power.
MAF is air density EFI
MAP is speed density EFI.
apples and oranges diffr. so what engine.

Is this problem only on decel does it have a stable idle An egr that is not closing on decel could account for missing even stalling but the backfire indicates excessive fuel in the exhaust stream and egr gas is inert and is only used to dilute the fuel mixture to reduce combustion chamber temperature and control the formation of NOX gases

co2 sensor/s and egr might need cleaning.

It could be that your EGR valve is going bad. Cleaning the TBI could have helped by unclogging some carbon, allowing it to run better for a bit, but does not fix the problem.

Here is my reference:
http://www.ehow.com/about_6157262_symptoms-bad-egr-valve_.html

1st, need to get a compression test. No problem with taking it to redline. Low or short shifting actually do more harm to a rotary than letting it rev.

See if the port going in to the intake from the egr is blocked, the port is big on the egr end and goes down in size and can clog.

2 airflow sensor out of operating range 3 coolant temp sensor out of operating range 4 oxy sensor indicates full rich 5 throttle potentiometer/airflow sensor... (low throttle pot signal with high airflow sensor signal) 6 throttle pot/airflow sensor...... (high throttle pot signal with low airflow sensor signal) 7 throttle pot...idle fuel adjustment failure(idle speed??) 8 intake air temp sensor...open or shorted circuit to sensor 11 Throttle pot at idle: Throttle pot idle trim out of normal range 12 Airflow meter: MAF signal out of range 14 Coolant thermistor: Resistance out of range or static during engine warm up 16 Air thermistor: Resistance out of range 17 Throttle pot: Out of range 18 Throttle pot/Airflow: Low throttle pot signal at high airflow 19 Throttle pot/Airflow: High throttle pot signal at low airflow 22 Fuel pump drive: ECU output to fuel pump relay 23 Fuel supply: Engine running too rich 24 Ignition Drive: ECU output to ignition Amp 26 Air leak: Engine running too lean 29 ECU self check 33 Injector Drive: ECU output to injectors 34 Injector: Looks for Injector dribble 37 EGR Drive: ECU output to EGR switching valve 39 EGR check sensor: EGR not working (normally pipe blocked) 44 Lambda (O2) sensor: Poor mixture control rich or weak (or misfire) 46 Idle speed Control valve: ECU output to Coil AB 47 Idle speed Control valve: ECU output to Coil CD 48 Idle Speed Control Valve: Stepper motor grossly out of position 66 Air pump: ECU output to air pump relay 68 Road speed sensor: Seen speed < 5km/h at high engine airflow 69 Drive/Neutral switch: Seen cranking in "D" or high airflow in "N" 89 Purge Valve drive: ECU output to purge valve
this is all I could find

possible egr valve problem,you can start with disconnecting the vacuun source to it and see if it rubs better but if its stuck open you may not notice any change,you can look underneath the valve with a light and mirror and apply vacuum to the valve and watch for the diaphram to move up and down,have you checked tec ecu for codes? if you need more info let me know have a good day DB