sirhk100
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- December 19, 2000
- Messages
- 1,770
- Reaction score
- 2
- City, State
- las vegas
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '91
I don't know the true story on this explorer. I picked it up knowing it has it's issues as kind of a fixer upper type rig to eventually daily drive.
'91 explorer but I believe the drive train is actually out of something a few years newer. It's still the same 4.0L V6 though.
Previous owner says he did wires, plugs and fuel filter less then a year ago.
I've had the expo for about 3 weeks now and have been pretty much daily driving it.
This past Thursday it developed a high idle where it would sit around 1400-2000rpm in D or N. In gear (auto trans) it would sit at about 1000rpm. After doing a bunch of reading I cleaned the MAF, checked the TB with the meter, fixed a couple vacuum leaks that I found and played with the IAC. I ended up doing a jerry rigged type fix where I made a new IAC gasket with about a 3/8" hole for each port. This got it to where it idles about 900 rpm both in N and in gear. So basically that's still not a fixed issue.
Once about a week or two ago, while driving, at speed it started running like crap. It lasted about 5-10 seconds and acted like it was missing. I live in Vegas, it was a hot day. Probably 108 or so degrees.
Yesterday, I left the house and it was 114 out. It started up and ran fine on my lunch break and on my way home from work. Yesterday afternoon though at the same temps I ran across town with it. Typical city driving with some stop lights and 45mph roads. About 10 minutes after leaving the house and about a mile from my destination it starts doing the missing thing again. Get's to the point where it's just sputtering along. I pull it into neutral and rev it a couple times and it sputters it's way up in RPM but doesn't really clean up. I'm coasting along now pumping the gas trying to clear it out. About the time I figure I'm going to dive into the next drive so I'm not stuck on the road it clears up. I pull it into Drive and go, it lasts maybe another 5-10 seconds and then starts up again. At this point I'm coasting up to a left turn where I'll be less then a block from my destination. I coast up to the red light and it clears up while sitting there. Light turns green, I pull it into drive and it hesitates, pops, sputters, then clears up and takes off like normal. I pull into my destination and it's running fine. I'm parked for probably 45 minutes, come out to a similar temperature and make my drive all the way home problem free.
Now to me, it seems like it's vapor locking but I really doubt that it's doing that. I know these have in tank high pressure pumps which really shouldn't allow for vapor locking but because if issues I've had with vapor lock on other vehicles it sure felt similar. It was like it was running on 3 out of the 6 cylinders.
I can't 100% for sure say it's heat related but it has been probably the two hottest days since I've owned it that I've had the issue. Coincidence? not sure...
I know in my mind I've go this jerry rigged IAC setup but really while cruising at full temperature it shouldn't affect it. Oh, that's the other thing, my temp gauge seems to be reading a little low. It's at probably about 1/3 of the way up and reading on the cold side. It's been reading low like that for a few weeks but I swear when I first drove it home it was reading straight up dead center basically. I haven't owned it long enough though to totally remember what the "norm" is.
If the previous owner did the fuel filter I'm fine with that. I'm half tempted to try and new fuel relay and maybe even a new pump in the tank just to rule those two out of the system.
Any thoughts?
'91 explorer but I believe the drive train is actually out of something a few years newer. It's still the same 4.0L V6 though.
Previous owner says he did wires, plugs and fuel filter less then a year ago.
I've had the expo for about 3 weeks now and have been pretty much daily driving it.
This past Thursday it developed a high idle where it would sit around 1400-2000rpm in D or N. In gear (auto trans) it would sit at about 1000rpm. After doing a bunch of reading I cleaned the MAF, checked the TB with the meter, fixed a couple vacuum leaks that I found and played with the IAC. I ended up doing a jerry rigged type fix where I made a new IAC gasket with about a 3/8" hole for each port. This got it to where it idles about 900 rpm both in N and in gear. So basically that's still not a fixed issue.
Once about a week or two ago, while driving, at speed it started running like crap. It lasted about 5-10 seconds and acted like it was missing. I live in Vegas, it was a hot day. Probably 108 or so degrees.
Yesterday, I left the house and it was 114 out. It started up and ran fine on my lunch break and on my way home from work. Yesterday afternoon though at the same temps I ran across town with it. Typical city driving with some stop lights and 45mph roads. About 10 minutes after leaving the house and about a mile from my destination it starts doing the missing thing again. Get's to the point where it's just sputtering along. I pull it into neutral and rev it a couple times and it sputters it's way up in RPM but doesn't really clean up. I'm coasting along now pumping the gas trying to clear it out. About the time I figure I'm going to dive into the next drive so I'm not stuck on the road it clears up. I pull it into Drive and go, it lasts maybe another 5-10 seconds and then starts up again. At this point I'm coasting up to a left turn where I'll be less then a block from my destination. I coast up to the red light and it clears up while sitting there. Light turns green, I pull it into drive and it hesitates, pops, sputters, then clears up and takes off like normal. I pull into my destination and it's running fine. I'm parked for probably 45 minutes, come out to a similar temperature and make my drive all the way home problem free.
Now to me, it seems like it's vapor locking but I really doubt that it's doing that. I know these have in tank high pressure pumps which really shouldn't allow for vapor locking but because if issues I've had with vapor lock on other vehicles it sure felt similar. It was like it was running on 3 out of the 6 cylinders.
I can't 100% for sure say it's heat related but it has been probably the two hottest days since I've owned it that I've had the issue. Coincidence? not sure...
I know in my mind I've go this jerry rigged IAC setup but really while cruising at full temperature it shouldn't affect it. Oh, that's the other thing, my temp gauge seems to be reading a little low. It's at probably about 1/3 of the way up and reading on the cold side. It's been reading low like that for a few weeks but I swear when I first drove it home it was reading straight up dead center basically. I haven't owned it long enough though to totally remember what the "norm" is.
If the previous owner did the fuel filter I'm fine with that. I'm half tempted to try and new fuel relay and maybe even a new pump in the tank just to rule those two out of the system.
Any thoughts?