Help! Rough idling, still runs...

[sophie12397]

Hey all, I've JUST had a problem begin today. When I parked my 96 Explorer XLT last night, it was running fine. I got in it and turned it on today and it's idling so rough the whole thing shakes! It runs but like crap. I driven it today but mainly in the city and have not gone over 50 mph. However, I noticed that when I get "to speed" the engine smoothes out, unless I'm going up an incline then it chugs a bit. Upon starting the tach will go close to 1000 rpm, and its smoooth,(fairly) the it will drop to about 500 and THEN the rough idle begins.

WHAT I HAVE DONE:

1. I read the threads on here and found out about the MAF, so I tried to clean that BUT I'm throughly puzzled cause the one in MY truck is embedded in some sort of gel. That is if I took the right thing off. It is on the passenger side, behind the radiator and wiper reserviors. It's got the Tork screw things ya'll were talking about, BUT it only has ONE "set" of wires coming to it and then a wire going from it to the engine. I THINK this is the MAF. Am I wrong? At any rate, I took that off, opened it up and the durn wires that I saw were embedded in a gel, so there's NO cleaning them.

2. While I was at the auto parts store (to buy the Torx tools) I bought a brand new air filter and installed it. (The old one was FILTHY!) It seems to run a little better after I put the new one in but I'm not sure.

3. I read (and bookmarked) the link where you can do the diagnostics yourself but I can't seem to figure out WHAT I need to do the test. Do I need a volt meter of something? I'm soooooo confused! Can you one you explain it to me? Talk to me like I'm 6 maybe I'll get it.

I would change the spark plugs but I have NO idea what the hell they are supposed to look like, in other words, I can't tell if they're good or bad!

PLEASE, if any of you can help with this I would so much appreciate it.

 

[snoborder42]

The MAF is the Mass Air Flow Sensor. You dont actually clean the wires, you clean the sensor itself. Its the silver thing attacted to the air filter box. (At least on the 92 it is.) Then you take the sensor off the filter box and spray some carb cleaner on the inside of the sensor and then let it dry off before reinstalling it. As for the spark plugs, if they are the original plugs or have 60,000 or more miles they probably need to be changed. Go to this site to see what condition your plugs are in. Spark Plugs

Then if you do change plugs you might want to change the wires also.

 

[1quick95]

Sounds like you maybe have bad spark plug wires,the missing is when the arc out and dont fire the plug.If your air filter was real dirty,you could prolly use a full tune up (plugs,wires and the gas filter)

 

[marragtop]

Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Start with the vacuum tree located near the firewall on the drivers side(I'm assuming it's a 6 cylinder).

 

[aldive]

Try running a can of Sea Foam through the intake.

Good luck ....

 

[sophie12397]

It's FIXED!

My hubby borrowed a tester from a buddy of his, and it said the #2 spark plug was bad. When he pulled the wire, we saw that it had been making contact with the engine and had been melted through to the wire, so it was probably arcing between the wire and the metal of the engien. So, we changed the wires, clean the plugs and now it's JUST FINE.

Thansk to all of you for your input and help, I REALLY appreciate it!