Possibly my IAC causing this howling??

[XLT]

My Explorer which is a manual really likes to howl once i get to about 40 mph. I have taken it out of gear and the howling stops, so the howling is only happening when there is a load on the engine itself. The howling then dissappears as i pick up more speed but is still present. Does this sound like an IAC problem to any of you?? I just wanted to double check before i replace someting that doesn't need it. Thanks

 

[kfkodiak]

If it howls at 40mph, I'd suspect something else. IAC's usually howl at idle.

It wouldn't hurt to clean the IAC though. I usually clean mine about once or twice a year. It usually starts howling around July or so.

 

[XLT]

Well i just clean the IAC about 500 miles ago and it didn't do much. My Explorer always seems to howl once it gets up to about that speed no matter what time of year. Any idea what the problem might be?

 

[pug fugly]

Did you ever solve this problem? I have the same thing :40-45 MPH terrible howling. I have the automatic though. The howl does stop when I shift out of gear. Could it be some kind of whistle from the intake?

 

[pugsy]

Is it coming from under the hood?
Could be a bearing in the rear axle maybe.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Clean the MAF, IAC, and throttle body intake. It should make a noticeable difference.

 

[manaen]

I had a similar howling on a 90 Ex sport with the manual. It started when a seal in the back of the tranny (which is a known problem) blows out and much of your fluid runs out of the tranny. This basically burns up the bushings and causes the howl sound when in certain gears. I think my 3rd, 4th and 5th gear did it.

I hope this is not your problem, cause the only way to fix it is a rebuild of the tranny. Start with checking the fluids in the manual tranny, check the levels, if never changed then I would drain and refill the thing with full synthetic mercon V. However if it is coming from the tranny you may want to have it looked at. Ultimately my gears stopped synchronizing and I finally had to take it in for a rebuilt.

Good luck and let us know what you find ...

 

[Robman]

I have a 97 Ex 4.0L OHV XL off the road currently and I cleaned the IAC today just to be diligent and now it howls like a sonuvagun .. and before it was fine. All I used was carb cleaner.... the joys. - Tried it the next day and it was working properly again, guess the carb cleaner dried up.