My 02 5.4 has been intermittently idling wierd when cold lately. Once you drop it into drive, then back into neutral or park, it would surge several hundred RPM several times, sometimes 2-3 times, sometimes constantly until you give it a slight rev, then it would settle down to normal. Today it started doing this in gear. Pull out of the neighborhood, come to the first stop sign, and it surged several times, in gear before I took off from the stop. This completely goes away once the engine is warmed up a bit. I'm thinking a dirty IAC or MAF. Is that logical? The IAC is a PITA to get to on these engines, and I've never cleaned a MAF before (although have been meaning to do so as preventative maintainance). Would these be good places to start?

 

Mine was doing that,, but after a good cleaning of the TB, IAC, and EGR ports... it's much better....

I also recently replaced my PCV and that could have contributed to the fix as well

 

I had a problem like you are describing and it was the MAF. Hope you get the issue resolved. Good luck.

 

Cleaned the MAF and that didn't change anything. Will do the IAC next, although it is a bear to get at without taking off the whole TB assembly. Hopefully that will do the trick. Only does this when its cold. Wierd?