severe hesitation with a/c on?

[cjben]

2004 4.6 138,000 miles. When the a/c is on, I can press the accelerator at least a half inch before the engine starts to accelerate,and then when it does go,it takes off like a bat out of hell. Not real fun to drive in traffic. Turn the a/c off,and it drives like normal. Any ideas? Thanks!!

 

[extra-medium]

vtec kicked in

 

[anthonymtz]

2004 4.6 138,000 miles. When the a/c is on, I can press the accelerator at least a half inch before the engine starts to accelerate,and then when it does go,it takes off like a bat out of hell. Not real fun to drive in traffic. Turn the a/c off,and it drives like normal. Any ideas? Thanks!!

Hey there, I some times get a little hesitation when the ac is on, it makes more of a drag than you think, more of my "lag" also comes from my "fly by wire" gas pedal, it has no cable going to it but instead a wire harness to basically send a signal to the engine, now my 2002 lexus has a throttle cable connected to the gas pedal and the response time and crispness of the peddle is 100% better, in a matter of fact you get a very sharp response, with that being said I've owed a 2002 ford explorer 4.0 and it hade a cable, never had a lag issue with or without the ac, it just went lol! I wish my explorer didn't have FBW cause when it goes out it sucks! Next I would look into giving it a little "tune up" replace spark plugs, clean/check your idle air control valve, clean the throttle body and if you have FBW too be very careful a found the sensors not cheap to replace! And then I always go to my local dodge/jeep dealer and go to the parts department and buy what they call (MCCC) As known as.... Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner all you do is open up a vacuum hose on the throttle body and spray in the whole can it helps to clean off any carbon/gunk this product has been outstanding! It's also brought half running cars back to life! Cost 10.99 here in the dfw but trust me it's a good investment, it's almost like seafoam except this cleans way better, you do have to let the car set for a few hours so it can soak in. After that just start it up and let the smoke clear up then get on the freeway for a few miles, also don't be afraid to get on it, you should do a few WOT pulls from 50ish to 70 then 30-70 and WOT from a dead stop and that should be plenty, my explorer ran so smooth when I did that, also forgot to mention put new plugs after this!!!! And use top tier gasoline, like shell and chevron, they have very good gas with alot better cleaning agents and detergents, it cost 20 cents more but my explorer runs very nice when I use these gas stations. Good luck let me know if this helps!