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Acceleration Issues

Matt05

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February 16, 2019
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Year, Model & Trim Level
2015 Explorer XLT
I am new to this group as well as new to Ford. We purchased a 2015 Explorer XLT 4x4 last October. A few weeks ago I noticed while driving it under light acceleration the car kind of pulsates. It's my wife's car so I hardly drive it, I asked her how long it's been doing it and she said a few days. Another thing I noticed was the exhaust smelt terrible after this had happened. I've driven it a few more times over the past few weeks and noticed if I accelerated heavily it will go fine, if there is a car turning in front of me and I go to speed back up lightly it will act up. If I'm trying to maintain my speed at the speed limit it will act up as well. the feeling is hard to explain I mentioned pulsate but it's just very sluggish until I press the gas a little harder. I have no CEL and all I done is clean the mass air flow sensor. I've searched all over the forum with no luck. The vehicle has around 77,000 miles on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 



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Does it feel like you're driving on a road with lots of small, annoying bumps in it?
 






Does it feel like you're driving on a road with lots of small, annoying bumps in it?
No not really, it honestly feels like a misfire but I'd think it would do it even worse when applying more throttle if that was the case.
 






No not really, it honestly feels like a misfire but I'd think it would do it even worse when applying more throttle if that was the case.

Have you driven it in sports mode to see if its something to do with the transmission shift points?

I assume you bought it used, in which case, the PCM and TCM have adaptive learning that has been configured to the previous owner. A reset of both, as well as an update to the system, might help that (dealership will probably charge at least 1 hour labour for that).
 






Would you say it's "Shuttering" like it's in the wrong gear? Does it accelerate as you'd expect even though it's shaking? That's what mine was doing, along with other stuff. The dealer couldn't duplicate the problem until it failed completely. Good luck.
 






Have you driven it in sports mode to see if its something to do with the transmission shift points?

I assume you bought it used, in which case, the PCM and TCM have adaptive learning that has been configured to the previous owner. A reset of both, as well as an update to the system, might help that (dealership will probably charge at least 1 hour labour for that).
By sport mode do you mean manual shift? Yes it still does it. I've thought about unhooking the negative battery terminal to see if it would reset the shifting.
 






Would you say it's "Shuttering" like it's in the wrong gear? Does it accelerate as you'd expect even though it's shaking? That's what mine was doing, along with other stuff. The dealer couldn't duplicate the problem until it failed completely. Good luck.
I wouldn't call it a shutter. It accelerates just a little sluggish at lower RPM's. What failed on yours?
 






Miles?

Have you ever changed the plugs on it?
 






I wouldn't call it a shutter. It accelerates just a little sluggish at lower RPM's. What failed on yours?
Welcome to the Forum Matt.:wave:

Peter
 












Are you the first owner? If not I would start with the plugs then clean the MAF sensor and then the throttle position sensor. The newer ones are built into the Throttle Body I think. Run a good tank of gas though it at a highway speeds to just clear it out.
 






Plugs and run some techron fuel injector cleaner through your next couple tanks of gas.

See if it helps.
 












Are you the first owner? If not I would start with the plugs then clean the MAF sensor and then the throttle position sensor. The newer ones are built into the Throttle Body I think. Run a good tank of gas though it at a highway speeds to just clear it out.
I've read the plugs are good for 100K and I already tried cleaning the MAF sensor but not the throttle body position sensor. Since I've owned it I've always used 89 octane fuel.
 












I'll try the fuel injector cleaner and let you know.

Ford may say the plugs are good for 100k miles and in most cases they probably are.

With the issues that many have seen with inconstant plug gaps yours could very well not be good for 100K miles.
 












I've read the plugs are good for 100K and I already tried cleaning the MAF sensor but not the throttle body position sensor. Since I've owned it I've always used 89 octane fuel.
Last year I bought my 2013 XLT, it had 50k miles at the time, checked spark plugs and they were worn so I replaced them. It´s been running so smooth after that, a little better fuel economy also. Since you don´t have any check engine codes, a tune-up is in order.
 






So I’ve replaced the spark plugs and cleaned the MAF sensor and the vehicle is still studdering under light acceleration. I have yet to have the CEL come on to check and codes. Does anyone recommend anything else?
 



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Umm

did you reset the PCM? If you did then it would be hard to know what´s wrong without some diagnostics.
Some sensors and electronics can be very tricky, be bad and don´t trigger a code. I suggest you take it to a dealer.
A couple of things come to mind but they require replacing parts. A bad or failing coil or maybe you have a bad TPS which is in the throttle body, its not expensive, the throttle body costs about 50 bucks, but then again, you need to know for sure what´s wrong instead of start to throw parts at the truck.
I suggest you take it to a Ford dealer or to a shop with diagnostics. If you can´t take it to a dealer, you could use Forscan with a bluetooth ODBII adapter, maybe there´s a pending code, only advance electronics can read.

I hope this helps.
 






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