ENGINE SPUTTER

[Chris Becker]

Hello All...My 99 explorer (152,000mi.) has been sputtering with real bad acceleration. It starts fine and this happens in drive or neutral. About 4 months ago my engine would on occassion not idle and die. Then I would have to hold my foot on the gas to keep it running. Its happened on and off up to now. The engine could be hot or cold and sometimes the problem ended after a few minutes, other times it happened for several days. I also experienced some pinging so i went to a high octane gas for 1 fill up and that stopped the pinging. I was going to have it looked at 10 days ago because I was going on a 2000mi vacation and didn't need problems.....well the problem seemed to go away 3 days before the vacation so i took and chance and didn't have it looked at. I drove for 600 mi and got into stop and go traffic and I started hearing a whining in the engine compartment. This only happened when the egine reved slowly and hitting the gas made it stop. Well once we got going again the sound stopped but I think I heard it another time. Then on the way home on this trip the engine began sputtering. When I tried to go up inclines it had little power and the ac fan would stop till I leveled out taking pressure off the engine. That has never happened before though I have experienced that in low quality economy cars. If any of you knowledgeable people have a clue on what might be my problem I would love to hear it before I take it in. Take care.

 

[mrboyle]

Try using the search feature using the search title IAC. You are experiencing a very common problem with the idle air control motor. The subject has been discussed several times in the past and by searching the older threads wll provide you with the information you'll need to repair the problem.