1995 vExplorer Stalling

[JimP]

I own a 1995 Ford Explorer XLT that I bought new in January of 1995. It has had an idling and stalling problem since late 1996. This happens mostly sitting at traffic signals with the transmission in Drive, but it has stalled sitting in Park. The idle may just seem to skip a beat and then stall or it may skip a beat and continue to run, but most of the time the idle races up and down from 500 RPM's to as high as 2000 RPM's and after 2 or 3 trips up and down it stalls. Needless to say, keeping my foot firmly on the brake is a must. Fortunately it always starts right back up. I have had it into the Ford dealership several times and they can't find anything wrong with it. I have heard of other people having similar problems, but Ford found their problems with a diagnostic check. My on board computer doesn't record any of the idle fluctuations
or stalls. I have been wondering if there has been some kind unpublished recall that Ford will acknowledge only if pressured. Does anyone have an idea what the problem might be? Ford sure doesn't, or at least they don't want to tell me about it if they do. Thanks for taking the time to read my message.

 

[Stephen]

I'm going to move your post over to the General Explorations forum, you'll get some good responses there.

 

[jimmyb]

I had a similar occurance on my 95 explorer at about 60k. I think the original problem was a clogged fuel filter, but one day it finally wouldn't start so I replaced the fuel pump and the fuel pump relay. Judging from other comments on this site, I would start with the fuel filter if you haven't done this already and then the relay, since it is only a few dollars.

Hope this helps.

 

[dgammon]

My 95 Limited is doing something similar. If I've been running at idle a lot (ie - heavy traffic), then turn it off briefly, when I start it back up (like within a few minutes), it won't idle. It seems to be related to hot weather, but at least hot engine.
I had a similar problem in a Honda, once, that turned out to be carbon deposits, which cleared up after running higher octane fuel for a while.
--DG - 95 Limited 4.0.

 

[TPLYNCH]

Have they checked/replaced the Idle Air Control module? That may be a good place to start? Do your RPM's dive when the A/C compresson kicks in?? If so, that is a sure sign of trouble with the IAC.

 

[d_atl]

’95 loaded XLT 4.0 4x4 120K

Check the IACV! I have had major problems with the truck dieing at low idle when hot for last 10K. Dealer replaced a $1000.00 fuel injector controller and still the truck stalled. Read several posting here and found the following links about the Idle Air Control Valve. Over the weekend I removed and flushed the IACV with carb cleaner. Chunks of black crud came out(cool hun). No low idle problems any more! I hope this helps others.
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~v8mate/auiac.html
Dead Link Removed
http://www.se-r.net/engine/about_iacv.html