Questions and Answers
Ford Explorer Rolling idle
Q. Mr. Ciulla, I just ran across your site today and have spent eight hours while at work browsing through it. I have learned some very interesting stuff. It is a great site. Here's my question of the day. I have a 1996 Ford Explorer XLT, 4.0 liter V-6, automatic transmission with 165,600 miles on it. It is EFI with ABS and P/S, A/C and cruise control along with rack and pinion steering.
I haven't had the slightest problem out of the vehicle, aside from the check engine light coming on around 100,000 miles. They told me that was one of the O2 sensors. I was told they come from the factory with the light on and if it goes off, you have a problem, as a joke.
Anyway, it has recently started to experience a fluctuating idle while in park. It drops from about 1,000 rpms to about 700 rpms. I have cleaned the throttle body, which was very dirty as well as the IAC motor (I guess) located just behind the throttle body. This hasn't helped the problem any.
I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to fix this problem. I love the DIY lifestyle and am willing to tackle almost anything. Also, I have read a lot in your advice about reading the codes from the OBD-II system? Just curious, is there anyway I can do this without a reader? If so please tell me how.
Again you are doing a very fine job and any help you can give this traveling man would be appreciated.
Hollace
A.
There are some 1996 OBD-II vehicles that you can extract DTCs from without a scan tool. But Ford is not one of them.This is a common symptom for this vehicle and is most often traced back to the Mass Air Flow (MAF). See:
I think you will find it useful to resolve this problem.
