Hello, new here. I have a 2000 Exploder, V6 Auto tens & all of the sudden it is refusing to idle sometimes. Most times if I drive a while it will be ok but sometimes not. The next day it may be fine. Any ideas would be greatfuly appriciated. Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum!

You may want to repost this in the General tech section, you have a better chance to get answers there. But since you're here, you can take a look at the IAC (idle air control) valve. It is a proportional pneumatic valve that bypasses the throttle plate and controls the amount of air the engine gets while the gas pedal is at rest. If the valve is dirty or its airways in the throttle body are plugged, it can cause your engine to stall. Please keep in mind that most of these valves can not be cleaned, they can only be replaced.

Of course, there may be more reasons for the issue you're having, but the IAC valve is the first place to check.

If you step just a bit on the gas, would your engine still tend to stall, or it is fine? Let us know ...

 

Welcome to the site gtsexplor..

cougar_fan's got you covered

 

Thanks & if I new how to move this to the " General Tech" section I would, next time I will use it. Thanks for the idea of looking at the IAC valve. If I give it a little gas it will respond. I get the feeling that something is sticking, I was thinking there must be some part of the choke or such. I will try to find out what I can of the IAC & if I can clean or replace it. Even when the car is not stalling the idle sometimes is unsteady, it goes down allmost to far but just before it dies it goes up & is ok. It has never been real smooth at idle. Oh ya this may give a clue, during the times that it is doing the stalling thing if I rev it fairly hight it doesn't seem like it running on all six, it feels uneven. Maybe a coil or injector isue? What about advance unit? I have two 40 year old cars & two 40 year old bikes, this " modern " truck is odd to me. I can only understand the obviouse stuff in the engine bay but I'm learning. Thanks again.

 

The IAC valve can become sticky and bounce from being too open (high idle) to being too closed (low idle, close to engine stall). The IAC valve should be able to adjust the air flow during idling and compensate the idle speed during variable engine loads such as power steering and A/C. Don't try to clean it, just replace it with a new one. The valve should be located on the throttle body.

You may also want to check the spark plugs and replace them (together with the spark plug cables) if you feel that the engine is not running on all six (rough idling). If new plugs and cables don't take the unevenness away, then you can look deeper (a plugged injector or a toasted coil, for instance)

Oh, you can also have a problem with the distributor (if your car uses one, because some would have a distributor-less ignition system, called DIS). Take it off and clean the contacts in the cap and on the rotor with some fine sanding paper, and make sure you blow away any traces of metal dust from the cap before putting it back on the engine.

These "modern" cars are fully controlled by the software running in the powertrain control module (commonly called PCM, ECM or "electronic brain"), so there's no shock or mechanical advance adjustments. The PCM controls the fuel injection and spark timing based on info from a bunch of sensors reading intake air flow rate and temperature, engine coolant temperature, throttle position, crankshaft position, amount of oxygen in the exhaust gases, transmission gear currently engaged.

Let us know how it goes ... good luck!