Two things have surfaced on my '97 Expy 5.4L EB now that cold weather has arrived.....

1. Accelerator is sticking. Warm up car....get on freeway.....go 70-80 for a while.....get off.....and Expy wants to keep going......have to turn off and coast to a stop. When I start back up the engine revs at high RPMS. I think it's in the accelerator cable or linkage but I had my mechanic check it out and he can't find any problems. Anyone know of this issue? Seems to only happen when it's been really cold here in MI (Christmas and the past couple of days).

2. Heater blower and lights (instrument panel) were surging and and dimming intermittently....like some kind of electrical problem. Just started happening the other day when the temp dropped below 10. This morning it started rough.....went inside to let it warm up....came out and it was barely idling with no gauges working in the instrument panel even though I could still rev the engine.....tried turning it off then back on but just got the clicking and panel lights warnings. Any ideas out there? Does this sound like the alternator dying?

Any help on the above would be appreciated........seems like all the problems are cold weather related somehow........stay warm!!

Car is parked outside all night too.

 

my 98 expy has started kind of the same problem with the cold weather. Backing out of garage for first time you have to really press on the gas pedal to "unstick" it. After that its ok the rest of day. Any suggestions? thanks

 

I don't know much about the accelarator cable and linkages, but I took the plastic cover off the top of the engine and played with the cable and linkage and lubed it up but it still keeps sticking on something. I don't know if it's the cable, the linkage or inside the linkage like something gumming up in there. It seems to only happen when its really cold out and I get on the highway and do some high speeds for a while.....then something freezes up and won't let go......makes for some dangerous driving.....and is getting rough on the brakes and trans......even my dog starts shaking nervously and spins around in his seat when this happens!

 

Try cleaning the throttle body with Teflon safe cleaner. Mine was sticking hot and cold at startup but not driving down the road, thank goodness. Take the air hose loose and spray it down, let it sit for a few minutes, put the hose back on (it won't run long with it off) and start it up. It will probobly sputter and smoke for a minute but it should help with the problem.

 

How about a bad IAC?

 

entered in error.

 

I have it in the shop for a couple of other things right now so I will call the mech and have him try the cleaner on the throttle body and air hose and test the IAC........thanks for the help.

 

Just got it back from the shop last night and it looks like my problems are now compounded.

Mechanics replaced the battery, checked the accelerator system (again) and found no problems (again). I also had them fix a steering component that was squeaking when I turned the steering wheel and now my steering wheel sits at a 45 degree rotation when I am going straight and if I let go of it, it pulls hard to left. So now my alignment is all screwed up after spending $200 to fix the squeaking.

That was on my way home from the shop so I parked the car in the drive and, of course, it was cold again here last night.....10 degrees or so.

The next morning, I start my car (It started....that was a good beginning), let it warm up for about 10 minutes and headed on in to work....... and guess what.......another near-death experience in my Expedition.

I got on I-75 south and was cruising along about 70 and when I took my foot off the gas pedal in accordance with the obligatory morning slow-downs and stops in prevention of the chain reaction rear-enders that occur daily on this congested stretch of highway due to aggressive tailgating practiced by nearly all Michigan suburbanites during rush hour commutes...... only to find out my Expy wasn't stopping.......I did a quick check of the obvious....foot on pedal.....floor mat on pedal.....pump pedal to floor and release to unstick......pull up on backside of pedal with top of foot to manually unstick....but to no avail.

My options flashed before me.....I could pull off to the side and turn off the key and glide to a non power-assisted stop, but then I realized I left my cell phone at home so I wasn't going to be stranded on the side of the highway miles from work on this bitter winter morning knowing full well the void of any sympathetic fellow commuters (auto industry workers during the morning rush show about as much sympathy and compassion for their stranded fellow man as Piston fans do to the Pacers!). Or I could do some brake pumping and feathering until I could get to my exit a few miles down......I opted to keep going.

I made it to my exit where I had to do some high-speed cornering on slick exit ramps only to be caught by the first of two traffic lights I have to cross to get to work. I tried stopping the vehicle and turning it off all in one surging brake-torquing motion which got the car stopped, but when I turned it back on the RPMs raced up to over 4K while in Park so I quickley shut it off again. The light went green, so I turned it on again and slammed it into drive in one motion (still hit about 4K in RPMs) the car lurched forwarek, squealing tires and all while doing untold damage to the transmission as I raced through the next intersection and brake-torqued my way into the parking lot at work where I had to slam it into Park and shut off again as the engine surged against the brakes. As I got out, the foul, mechanical smell of burnning brakes, transmission and other engine parts filled the cold morning air..........to be coninued.

BTW.....sorry for the verbose explanation, I just like to have a good documented history for when I tell my Ford dealer why I will never buy another Ford again.

 

Glad I found this thread. It has been extremely cold here in SE PA, as well. Morning temps around 5-10 above have been the norm, with daytime temps in the mid-teens. Yesterday morning, I warmed my Expy up for about 15 minutes (2002 5.4). Everything was fine as I left on my way to work. About 10 minutes later, I was cruising along the freeway at 65mph and it kinda felt like the cruise control was on, but it wasn't. Then, I noticed as I was going downhill, I saw the speedo needle pass 70, then 75, then 80. I pressed hard on the brakes, but the Expy was still pulling. Tried tapping the accelerator, lifting it from behind, flooring it - nothing would help. I made it to work, where, as I put the trans in park, the RPM's shot way up to 4,000. Talk about a scary ride!

At my first morning break, I went out to look at the linkage, but all looked fine. Started up and idled fine. Strange. On my way home around 5:30p, everything was fine, but at one point, I felt the RPM's go up a bit. Put the trans in neutral, and the tach read 1500. But, since then, everything has been absolutely normal, even this morning. When I can get the Expy inside, I'll look at the throttle body assembly. It never did this before - only since it has been extremely cold.

 

.....the saga continues......

I actually made it home Friday night but my battery light kept flashing on and off.....pulsing with engine speed.....seems the faster I went the more solid it got, so I figured great, yet another problem......probably in the belts.

So as it turns out, the mechs at Morgan's Service who replaced my battery just treated a sympton and not the real problem. I discovered this on Saturday morning as we were in the middle of a pretty sizeable snowstorm here in MI, I had to make a run to the vet to pick up hypothyroid meds for my dog.......my choice was to either take the new 2005 Volvo V50 wagon with front wheel drive or risk my '97 Expy with the 4x4. We had already received about 6 inches and the roads were pretty bad and it was still snowing and blowing so I decided I would take the Expy with both dogs since I had just had the 4x4 fixed (another long story) and I wanted to actually experience what it was like to drive with 4x4 after about a year hiatus. This time I needed to head north on I-75 for about 15 miles and as I rounded the bend on the on ramp and got up to about 40-45 mph.....all looked good until the second mile in to the trip when the gauges went blank.....the battery light came on and then a beeping sounded and the engine just quit.......I had to coast to a stop through a snowbank on to the shoulder of the road.....and there I sat.....stranded in a snow storm on the shoulder of I-75 about 5 mile from home with an Expy that wouldn't even crank. So my battery problem seems to be an alternator problem (or belt problem) after all. I didn't even get a chance to experience a stuck accelerator in snow and ice conditions before it was trumped by another problem!!

I ended having to have AAA tow my car to a Ford dealer up the highway and have my wife pick me up with our 5 month old baby in the Volvo......not the kind of weather you want to be out driving in with your first born baby to say the least....but hey, at least it was a Volvo we were in if we were going to be crushed by some over-zealous out of control SUV in a blinding snowstorm.

To be continued......

 

Stonemeel, Im getting the same thing out of the instrument panel lights. Alot of dimming when I have the rear defrost going along with the front and rear blowers. I thought it was a battery issue, but....

Keep us posted.

 

I was having such bad luck with my local mechs (nicest guys in the world, but would fix one thing and break 2 or 3 in the process so it was a net loss each time) so I just had the tow guy take it to a Ford Truck Dealer the next exit up. I told the service guy on Saturday morning they were the last shot at keeping me as a Ford customer as I have already been through two other Ford Dealers in the past who I refuse to do business with....the original where the car was purchased and another near my work......but I digress....those were past nightmares.

Anyway, the dealer called yesterday and said it was the alternator gone bad and it needed a new serpentine belt (exactly what I told my mechanic to check and he said it was fine.....putting out 14.4 V......but he probably didn't do an extended test or under load I bet).

And my steering was about to fall apart....literally! I guess after my mech put on some new bracket to stop some excessive steering wheel squeaking he must have missed a few items on the re-assembly. They found some bolts that were barely hanging on. And they need to do the front-end alignment and straighten out the steering wheel.

And some other things with a total estimate of $750. Add that to the $350 I already spent this month on the battery and steering bracket plus the $60 to fix the 4x4 over Christmas then you get a grand total of $1160 this month on a V8 with 111K. I thought I would be in the bonus round (no payments or unscheduled repairs or maintenance) until at least 150K.

So basically I am thinking it's better to just lease and live with the cost for the no hastle experience because as soon as you finish paying off your car it just breaks down on you in a regularly recurring pattern. So you end up spending more on maintenance each month than you would to drive a new car every three years.