I have a 1999 Ford Explorer XLS. It’s in fairly decent shape. About 7 months ago it started having idling issues. I would start it up in the morning and it would idle very low, sometimes to the point of cutting off. As long as I have my foot on the gas, it’s OK. When I start it up, the RPMs would go down to ½ or lower whereas they’re normally at 1 ½ or above. When I got on the freeway, it would usually kick back in to normal. But when I do drive on the freeway and it still has its problem, I get an intermittent pulling – very very slight but I feel it (I’m sensitive to my vehicle). Its as if you’re sitting in the seat driving on a smooth surface at a steady pace and you get pushed back ever so gently once every 20 secs or so. It would have this problem once every week or two. I took it to a repair shop and had the fuel filter replaced and some “stuff†put in the tank. That took care of the problem for about 3 weeks. Since then, it’s back again and is becoming more frequent. It happens approx every 3 or 4 days now and lasts anywhere from a minute or two in the driveway to a whole day with several stops. It feels like there’s something in the tank clogging things and when it gets “blown outâ€Â, everythings back to normal. But somethings nagging at me that says it’s the fuel injectors or even possibly the timing belt – neither of which has been checked. I don’t want to say the “T†word.
Any suggestions short of buying a doohickey thing that you plug into the cars computer to diagnose it? (The money situation is extremely low or Id take it to the dealer)
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