Some pipe on the bottom dropped & Something with the idle?

[Valleriani]

Two things.

First thing is the idle, currently, when I'm idling, 'sometimes' it seems to have a wierd idle. What I mean is the idle is sitting around 800-1k, and it seems to drop like its going to stall, then I hear a 'click' noise (sounds electrical?) and then the car goes back up to the regular idle again. Often this does this 1-5 times and then stops doing that for a minute or so, then does it again. The car runs fine when it is actually driving, and if I give it some gas during those fart idle moments, it's fine as well. So that is number 1.

Number 2 is sad, at the moment, the truck is in the shop. We just got it a couple weeks ago, everything was fine with it at the time and I was pretty happy about it. Yesterday, we heard a loud THUNK then a scraping noise, very loud. We had to pull the truck over, and have it towed, (Thanks for the $200 towing bill, gotta love the companies that do that..) From the looks of it, it looks like a middle pipe of some sort, the car still drives and brakes fine from what I can tell, so I'm wondering if it is exhaust or something.

Now for what I could see: It's smack dab in the middle of the car (left to right) and probably just a tich past the middle of the top to bottom of the car. It seems like 4 bolts were holding it, and those bolts seem to have fallin off. What could those of been? (Seems like a squarish pipe, but im not sure.) The whole pipe was dragging and when they towed it away it felt like the whole pipe all the way to the back was almost dangling. Felt like there should of been some sort of clamp in the middle, or something like that to support it.

Suggestions? Thanks! (If someone has a bottom pic of a ford explorer I'd gladly try to point out what piece it is)

 

[corkey]

that click as you put it is the air conditioner coming on, and than click it does it again, and again and again, it is supposed to do that,,

that squarish pipe thing ? is it from the front to the back, or side to side,, ??

and what else is attatched to it at the other end,??, kind of a vague description for somebody to tell on not being able to see anything,

 

[Valleriani]

Thanks for the reply. And alright, was just worried because the RPM seem to dropped and only happens sometimes, not all the time.

Hrm it's hard to explain, I wish I had a diagram or something similar. I couldn't really tell at the moment because it was snowing hard/nighttime/no light. From what I could tell it was right in the bottom middle of the car, and went from one end to another, but in the middle it seemed to come loose, I could see four pretty big screws but no bolts..

I'll try to look around for images of bottom of the explorer then post when I have one. At the time was in the middle of no where, so couldn't run back home and snap a picture.

 

[corkey]

pipe?

did the end look like this, ???

 

[Valleriani]

Thanks for the reply again! That might be it. The screws however were long, and I'm not sure if the bolts were ones that are 'straight through' like the picture you showed. I'll draw a horrid diagram from what I saw on the side.. It does look similar to what your posting.

Take note though only two screws are displayed here, theres two screws on both sides, much like what you are showing in your picture, so might be that.. I was still able to drive, brake, etc. It felt fine cept the pipe on the ground. :\

Kinda looked like that with the pipe on the ground and you could see four screws that looked to be apart of the actual pipe or whatever it was (Like not bolts you remove, bolts that are like welded on or something.)

What would your picture be exactly?

I was actually wondering if it was like the 4x4 piece that makes the tires spin in the back, however its called.. New to this..

 

[corkey]

did the truck get louder when this happened ?
that kind of looks like it might be the exhaust pipe,,
the part in my picture is the back end of a drive shaft,, it drives the back wheels, and spins when you are moving,,

 

[Valleriani]

I didn't notice much difference but I wasn't paying attention at the time, was kinda freaked out by the loud ass bang of the pipe dropping. But my girlfriend stated it was pretty loud afterwards, which made me think exhaust as well, but I couldn't tell exactly becuase we just got the truck recently, and I haven't had time to check what goes where :\

How back is back for your picture? When I was looking at it it was more lets say, driver/passenger seat area.

 

[corkey]

okay than if it was that far foreward it had to be the exhaust, that connects almost directly under the front seats,,

the part i am showing is way back in the middle,, back by the rear axle,,
just a little hard to see it all the way over there in Sweden, ha ha ha,,

the exhaust shouldn't cost much too fix, dependant on if the end got caught in something on the road and got bent or not,, if it didn't bend, a new clamp is all it might need,

 

[Valleriani]

okay than if it was that far foreward it had to be the exhaust, that connects almost directly under the front seats,,

the part i am showing is way back in the middle,, back by the rear axle,,
just a little hard to see it all the way over there in Sweden, ha ha ha,,

the exhaust shouldn't cost much too fix, dependant on if the end got caught in something on the road and got bent or not,, if it didn't bend, a new clamp is all it might need,

Alright cool! We stopped instantly and I got it towed just in case, hopefully its minor damage or just the bolts or whatever came off. really hoping thats the case anyways.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[eXcali]

You can get a new exhaust installed for about $200 most places, you can also get an aftermarket kit around that price.

 

[Valleriani]

Apparently it was the 4x4 (they call it a kardanstang in swedish) it was the piece you showed me I believe, or near it.. It' is almost directly under the seats, but just a little more back.

So you were right corkey, I believe it's a propshaft or driveshaft from the translation. Kudos to you

Since we had it towed, the car was deemed okay, he stated it was a small fix and it didn't cost much at all, picking it up tommorrow. The bolts rattled loose, and apparently were loose, he stated we'd feel the shaking, but we didn't, not sure why exactly. I felt a minor shake but nothing that was serious compared to other shakes i've felt in other cars. He was pretty surprised, said it could of messed up the backend if we kept driving, so I am thinking was a good call to tow it, might of been more if we didn't.. :biggthump