1. Home
  2. Ford Explorer Forum
  3. Car randomly stalling (dropping below idle). Troubleshooting tips appreciated.

Car randomly stalling (dropping below idle). Troubleshooting tips appreciated.

Hi-

Something odd happened to me today and I'm wondering if anyone has any comments on this new problem I noticed today (of course at the most inoportune time):

I went to start up my car this morning and it started fine. Lately its been a little hesitant to start at all but a few cranks usually gets it going.

I got home- waited a few hours- came back to my car and it would turn over, and immediately die unless I kept my foot solidly on the gas.

I then spent several hours running errands on my bike and then called Roadside to get the car towed to the dealership. Once roadside showed up my car started up fine even after repeatedly turning the car off and on again (and it started fine WITHOUT pressing on the gas).

My initial thought is: clogged fuel line.

My second thought is- a sensor somewhere that is breaking slowly or intermittently breaking.

Can anyone offer any advice? My current dealer is "a week out" before they will even *look* at my car and so I'm really not interested in giving them the car for 7 days and then summarily getting fired for not going to work. Of course because there is always the chance that my car *will* indeed work for a week until the dealership can look at it asap.

Thoughts? Anyone?

Thanks much

Cheers,

-sd

formatting link

Reply to
Some Dude
Loading thread data ...

check out the IAC valve ,same thing happened to me and it was a killer drive in traffic coming home that evening....you may be able to clean it up,I just went and replaced mine when it happened 1.5 years ago.

good luck

Reply to
anonymizer

Check for cracks along the snorkel from the air filter box and MAP sensor to the intake manifold. Mine was cracked right at the curve to the manifold, making the engine backfire occasionally and blow off a vacuum line. It would do just like your truck did until I replaced the hose. I fixed the problem completely by replacing the snorkel.

Reply to
Richard Ray

Reply to
Gerald Riggs

I believe the IAC valve is *probably* the problem. I was on a website

formatting link
specifically,

formatting link
and I searched for problems similiar to mine and peoples descriptions of their problems were identical. I would have tried to clean the IAC valve but I didn't have the tools to get the "cover" off (whatever that piece of plastic is called...

The car is a 2002 XLT V8.

The one thing that makes me wonder, however, is that if I get the car going (by doing something stupid I won't describe here) and drive it for a while that more often than not when I turn the car back on it will go on and idle normally. So its as if driving the car, or even having the car running perhaps gives it a greater potential to start-up in the future and keep its idle.

I'm also curious what these valves cost to purchase and install so in case when I take it to the dealer tomorrow morning they don't rake me over the coals..

Thanks!

Cheers,

-sd

formatting link

Reply to
Some Dude

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.