hello,
recentely bought a 98' exlplorer sport. i live in upstae NY and its my first 4X4. drove for two weeks fine then i shut it off and i went to start it and it would crank but not turn over. i checked for spark and it had spark. full tank of gas. then a man at work said i might have lost the anti-theft code in my chip. i took it two the dealer and theysaid that it wasnt the key but that i needed new plugs so after i put in new plugs they said that the engine had no compression. i had it towed from the dealer to a garage by my house and he ran a diagnostic that said my crank shaft was disabled i then found out that i had an old car starter in and that might have been it. i took that out and it didnt work. then i took the battery out to get it out of the cold. when i brought it back two days later to put it in i started just to see and it started and ran fine. so i thought that wasit. and it ran too good for it to be compression so i thought the dealer just wanted my money.i drove it all day and it ran fine then i went out they next morning and i wouldnt start. tried 15 times over a week nothing then it started again. replaced fuel pump relay and cleaned MAF adn put in crankshaftsensor it ran fine then in a few days it happened. still never know when it will crank but not fire. any ideas? sorry for the length but i figured details would help. thanks -adam


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'98 Explorer Sport
Silver W/Dark Blue Trim
First Time Ford Owner

 

I have a '97 Explorer XLT that seems to be having similar symptoms as yours. Like yours, it has been starting and running just great, then suddenly I get in it and it will crank, try to start, but dont. It will start immediately if I hold the gas pedal all the way to the floor, but as soon as I let off the pedal, it dies. I have to ease off the gas pedal from a full engine rev in order to get it to idle on its own. After that, it runs and drives just great.

I dont want to end up having to do what you did, and start throughing parts at it in hopes it fixes it. I am here, like you, to try to get some expert advise so I can replace just one part and have my problems fixed.

If you find out what the problem is with yours, please do find my article here and reply with your fix. Good luck to both of us.

 

check your idle air control it may be defective, get one from a self-serve wrecker and try it. As for turning over and not starting check for spark at that time if no spark you have either a module problem or a coil problem, sounds to me like it is a faulty module as most coil problems occur after running for a while when the coil gets hot .

 

I got mine repaired, and I did it at home with minimal tools. I did as most of you said and cleaned my IAC valve with carb cleaner. It runs, idles and drives just fine now. Thanx. Did this help you at all.....barnes?