cold weather rpm flutter

[nidus]

Hi, I have a 2002 ford explorer. In the summer it runs fine...in cold weather It wants to stall. The problem happens when I take the kids to the bus stop in the morning. The vehicle starts fine and drives fine. When I come to the bus stop in the first five minutes of driving and shift into park for a minute then when I shift back into drive the idle will drop down to about five hundred rpms and just about stall. The idle then bounces back up and down a couple of times and then everything is fine. This only happens first thing in the morning. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[jrford]

with an '02 you have something called an IAC, or idle air controller, which maintains RPM at a minimum level, loosely related to a 'choke'. Might be dirty, or sticking. Other than that TPS's sensor, air temp sensor. . . those would be my first guesses.

 

[Ca.]

01 sport trac RPM up and down

I have a 2001 explorer sport trac , the RPM from 500 to 2500 up and down, clean it with liquid to clean auto parts . Fix it by cleaning the sensor of the air valve are only 2 screws, remove the plastic that is on top of the engine,part is in the center top of the engine, save me $ 120 for part + labor.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/0/1/article/Ford_Explorer_IAC_Fix.html