my 97' explorer sport recently had the idler, tensioner and belt replaced. when we got the truck back the thermastat was not working either. we replaced the thermastat the other day and it was running great... except for the belt was still screaching at start up ever since we had the other work done. however, later yesterday we had problems starting or should i say keeping the truck going... it starts but, unless we keep our foot on the gas it dies right out. we thought maybe it could be water in the gasline. so we added gasline antifreeze and tried to run it. even after an hour driving it is still stalling out unless we keep our foot on the gas. so, the other thing we thought was maybe the fuel filter... any ideas? please someone help!

 

Refer to thread started by mlamont, subject: horrible idle and random stalls posted 15 Dec 03.

 

So, you think it s either the idle air control (IAC) valve or simply a blown off vacuum hose. I know you said that it's a cylindrical with a plug on it and it's mounted on top where the throttle plate is with 2 bolts. Do you have any more details about the location? Not quite sure where that is? Do you think it could be a manifold o-ring leak? My engine is a SOHC engine, but I don't recall getting a notification for this problem.

 

I'm pretty sure it's your IAC. I had this same problem a few months ago.

 

yep somoene else referred me to another related thread... we cleaned the IAC valve with the brake cleaner to see if this was the problem and it works great! we will replace it soon or the next time we notice problems... thanks

 

Vacuum lines are important here as well--there is a vacuum tree on the upper intake near the firewall; make sure that all of those ports have something going to them. Follow each one of those lines to make sure that they go somewhere; if one of those is disconnected, you'll see the same symptoms.

 

Hope this helps!

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jua...nm=IAC-TPS.jpg