2006 Explorer 4.6 V8 jumping/hesitating when accelerating

[Mavrick0169]

Hello All,
I'm new to the forum but have owned my 2006 Explorer for 14 years. It has 172000 miles on it. It has recently developed the problem of being jumpy and hesitating when accelerating or slightly climbing. The check engine light actually came on today when it was doing this. The funny thing is it doesn't do this when on cruise control. I haven't taken it to get diagnosed yet and I don't have a code reader. The research I have done so far suggests it could be the Mass Air Sensor, Throttle Position Sensor, or Fuel Pump. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
Lance

 

[Fix4Dirt]

does the temp affect this at all? i would suspect fuel pump, especially if this happens more when the engine is hot

 

[94Eddie]

I would suggest that you read the codes that are tripped and report them here. Otherwise, we are all just guessing regarding what the problem is and the fix for it.

 

[Bill MacLeod]

How many miles on the spark plugs? When was the last time the trans was serviced?

And welcome to the forum.

 

[D Hook]

V-6 or V-8?

 

[J_C]

Take it to Autozone or another autoparts store that does free code scans and will loan you a fuel pressure gauge. Wait, what year did they get rid of the valve on the fuel rail? Then again at that point, is there a fuel pressure sensor so a realtime-data capable scan tool could show the pressure?

Personally, if owning vehicles more than a few years old, I'd invest in a scan tool, even if a cheap one like this BAFX dongle that you use with a phone, or tablet, laptop, etc:

Amazon product ASIN B005NLQAHSAmazon product ASIN B078K54MT5
It can do quite a lot with Forscan app on a phone, even the free Demo version of Forscan is enough to get codes or look at one PID at a time, though the free version won't reset codes, but if a code in the OBD2 code set, the free version of Torque app can do that, or the Forscan Lite version can and is only $(6?).