PULSCAR ANALYSIS — P0507 (IDLE AIR CONTROL SYSTEM RPM HIGHER THAN EXPECTED) IN NHTSA'S PUBLIC FILES PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, September 2026. License: CC BY 4.0. Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, September 2026." Published alongside https://www.pulscar.io/blog/p0507-code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prepared September 2026. Source data: NHTSA public flat files (complaints received 2015 to 21 September 2026, 780,071 records; manufacturer communications from January 2015; recalls from 2010) and documents downloaded from static.nhtsa.gov. 1. Complaints (1,241, all read in full, two readers) First search: every complaint whose narrative names P0505, P0506 or P0507 — matched by regular expression, including a letter O for the zero, a space or hyphen after the P, a two-character suffix (P050700), and a bare number after the words "code", "error", "dtc" or "cel" — or uses a high-idle phrase ("high idle", "idles high", "idle at 1,500/2,000...", "idle speed ... high", "racing idle", "fast idle" and similar): 365 complaints. Completeness audit: before writing, an independent audit searched the same file for wordings the first search missed (see "Pool history" in codebook.txt). Every complaint the widened search matched, plus the audit's further cases, was added: 876 more, 1,241 in all. The found_by column says which search found each complaint. Coding: the codebook (codebook.txt) was written, dated and hashed before any complaint was read. Two readers coded all 1,241 separately, each from the codebook only, without seeing the other's codes: one category (N not a high idle; T throttle or idle air; V air or vacuum leak; C computer or software; E other stated cause; A vehicle moved by itself, no cause; U high idle, no cause) and three flags (moved_by_itself, crash, check engine light or code). Agreement: category 1,160 of 1,241 (93.5%), Cohen's kappa 0.91; moved_by_itself 1,213, kappa 0.95; crash 1,238, kappa 0.97; light 1,221, kappa 0.94. Every disagreement was read in full and resolved under the written adjudication rules R1-R5 (codebook.txt); R5 was written after the second batch and applies to it. The complaints file carries both readers' original codes (coder1_*, coder2_*), the final code, the resolution and the rule applied. Final: not a high idle (N) 467; of the 774 that describe a high idle: moved by itself with no cause (A) 276, no cause stated (U) 230, another stated cause (E) 140, throttle or idle air (T) 84, computer or software (C) 35, air or vacuum leak (V) 9. Moved by itself 368; crash 51 (48 of them with the car moving by itself); check engine light or a named code 183. Named idle codes among the 774: P0507 21, P0505 7, P0506 2 (26 complaints name at least one). Makes among the 774: Ford 146, Hyundai 63, Toyota 63, Chevrolet 60, Jeep 51, Honda 50, Subaru 42, Nissan 40, Kia 36, Dodge 32, and others. Median model year 2014 (1993-2025); median reported mileage 67,190 (523 complaints give one). By year received: 2015 95, 2016 109, 2017 66, 2018 92, 2019 90, 2020 70, 2021 50, 2022 46, 2023 42, 2024 33, 2025 40, 2026 (to 21 September) 41. Figures count complaints, not vehicles. 2. Owner-reported amounts (38) Dollar figures for idle-related diagnoses, repairs and quotes in p0507-owner-reported-amounts.csv, with what each paid for and whether it was paid or quoted; the list was re-swept during fact-checking and 8 figures were added; vehicle prices, towing and loan balances are left out; non-idle items are labelled. 3. Manufacturer documents (168 read in full) and recall documents (26 read) First search: every manufacturer communication whose NHTSA index summary names P0507 or P0505, plus every light-vehicle communication whose summary uses a high-idle phrase (heavy-truck and bus makers excluded unless the summary names P0507): 184 NHTSA records, 150 distinct documents read in full. Completeness audit: an independent audit re-ran the search and widened it ("higher than expected idle", "increased idle speed", "idle hanging high", "idles high", "excessive engine rpm at idle", idle learn and idle air control wording). It found 21 more records on a high idle or the idle learn: 2 have no PDF on NHTSA, 1 is a byte-identical copy, and 18 distinct documents were read in full — 168 in all. It also found 85 records that name only P0506 (idle lower than expected); they are listed in the documents file as not read, because this article is about a high idle. Cold-start idle-control documents (P050A, P050B, P050D) and idle-fluctuation documents that the audit judged outside the topic are not listed. Of the 168: 155 relevant (39 direct, 17 list the code among others, 99 related), 13 not relevant; 43 name P0507 in their own text (a 44th, Audi 2070915/2, carries P050700 only in its title). Byte-identical copies (md5) are marked as duplicates. Page images were read where the text layer was empty or scrambled. Recall documents: Nissan recall 26V-081 (2024-2025 Rogue 1.5 VC-Turbo, electronic throttle body gears), which a complaint cites — the NHTSA acknowledgement letter, the owner letter and the dealer remedy bulletins read in full (the bulletins name P2101 and P2119), the other filings listed as not read; Ford recalls 20V-795 and 25V-793 (2021 E-Series 7.3, engine cover heat during designed elevated idle), found by the audit — all 19 filings on NHTSA read in full. None of the recall documents names P0507. Every verbatim quote in the article was checked by script against the document or complaint text. Coverage status in September 2026 is our computation from the terms printed in each document, not a statement by the manufacturer. Limits: complaints over-represent frightening events; owners report the diagnosis as they understood it; a phrase search catches narratives in which a high idle is incidental (coded N or U); searches of NHTSA's index cannot see bulletins whose summary is blank or codes that appear only inside a PDF. Nothing here is a failure rate.