No steady idle, and stalling...

[gator_explorer]

Hi, I'm a student at UF and am in need of some expertise. I recently took my Explorer (2001 Sport V6 4.0 L SOHC) to a mechanic due a rough idle. it seemed that whenever the AC kicked on, the RPM would fluctuate, sometimes even stalling. the mechanic did a fuel induction service (BG) and said it should take care of it...90 bucks later it still is idling very rough...the check engine light is on, but here's the notes from the mechanic
"vehicle does not hold steady idle, possible IAC going bad, bank 1 and 2 codes pulled again but O2 sensors are working fine at this time, possibly there is a small intake leak pulling a vacuum but not enough at this time to diagnose, recommend drive and try, light was reset...PO171 and PO172 LEAN exhaust bank 1 and 2"

please help anyone with some experience, i would like to get this fixed and fixed correctly..thanks

 

[performancenut]

How many miles on your vehicle? It could be the IAC (idle air control valve) which indeed could cause the rough idle, stalling, and poor compensation at idle when additional AC parasitic drag is present. Check out all the info. on this site. It is an easy replacement and relatively inexpensive. Also suggest you search and read about the MAF (mass air flow) meter cleaning procedure, which will cause some problems with air/fuel mixture if dirtyand/or contaminated. Seems like your mechanic didn't do much and returned the problem to you $90 later.

 

[marragtop]

You can also try cleaning the IAC before replacing it. Do a search on 'Clean IAC'.

 

[exploded99]

I second cleaning the maf and replacing the iac. Both common explorer issues - and not expensive to do urself.

 

[orange_exploder]

I had the same problem on my 01 X sport. My truck only had 30,000 on it at the time. I tried cleaning the IAC but ultimately had to replace it to fix the problem. Runs fine now.

replace the IAC and clean the MAF sensor.

 

[Chris97Exploder]

Mine was throwing the P0430 code and idling rough but not stalling. I don't want this to sound stupid but I replaced the fuel filter and reset the computer and the code hasn't come back and it idles steady now...........
Its been 400 miles since this and before the code would come back at about 75. It has about 105K on it and it didn't look like the filter had ever been changed and the old filter was quite heavy (after dumping back and forth to get fuel out, I should have cut it open but oh well). But I knew my IAC wasn't dirty from when I put the timing chain tensioner update on it.