'91 Explorer is losing power when I turn my headlights on.

[rredd91ex]

Hello I cannot figure out what is going on when I start up my ex and go to turn on the headlights I loose power to everything and it shuts off. Its fine when just the parking lights are on. Any ideas of where to start its a 91 ex?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've renamed your thread, and moved it into the stock 91-94 section. Clean your battery terminals, and check your charging system. Load test the battery once you determine that it's fully charged.

 

[rredd91ex]

Thank you. I check the charging system and its good im getting 14.4v, and the battery passed a load test. Its not consistant sometimes its fine and other times it looses power.

 

[Tbars4]

...My next thing would be to check the cables...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250186&highlight=cables

 

[rredd91ex]

I will check those tomorrow thank you.

 

[rredd91ex]

Sorry its been crazy lately. So I changed out the battery cables and so far so good. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Tbars4]

...Thanks for the update...:biggthump

....Hopefully, your alt and battery did not suffer from the bad cables...

 

[BrooklynBay]

Thanks for the update!

 

[rredd91ex]

Hopefully not. I am having another issue when it is cold it spits and sputters during idle and especially when giving it throttle. I do let it sit and warm up for about 10 min. but when I first take off its bad. I am not getting a check engine light and when it is warm it runs like a top.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you clean the mass air flow sensor?

 

[rredd91ex]

Yes.

 

[Currency]

mine use to do a similar thing, cleaning my mass airflow unit and sensor didn't fix it so I kept on searching around. Mine also had a strangely high idle, around 1,100-1,300 rpm.

I cleaned my idle air control (IAC) and it runs a lot better, it generally has a some what high rev at start up but within 30 secs is around 600 rpm.

http://www.explorer4x4.com/iac.htm

That link will walk you through the process. It's cheap to clean it out so give it a try when time permits and let us know the results.

I cut corners on mine and used electric contact cleaner. I'm a full time student and live off of my student aid money that I get bi-monthly. I still need to really clean it out among other things. I just made sure I let it dry completely before putting it back on.

Hope this helps.