i'm looking at buying a bronco 2, and i went to go see a 89 eddie bauer edition. has 139k miles. new fuel filter and new brake line. all it needs (he says) is a front brake line and a power steering hose. ok, no biggy. well i asked him to start it up and it was running fine at idle for many minutes, at least 10. well he put it in reverse and backed it up under a light. and when he got there and put it in park, it started running rough. it would make a chug-chug, chug-chug, chug-chug sound at idle instead of a steady chug chug chug chug chug. and it would randomly clear up for a few seconds and start again. so we took it on a test drive (around the yard) and it shut off randomly, started fine though. also the truck sat for a while, maybe a year or less. what could the problems be? maybe just needs a tune up or to clean the spark plugs? bad gas maybe? or something more serious, id like to no before i buy it. thanks!

 

Did the check engine light come on when it would run rough or die? If so, it would be a good idea to read the stored codes. Also, did the engine die when put under any kind of load? If so, it may be the idle air control mounted on the passenger side of the air intake. They develop deposits and become sticky. It is the control that keeps your engine throttled up just enough to recover from any reduction in idle speed.

 

no the check engine light didn't. and ok i'll check that out for goop or something then as im going back to look at it again today.