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My wifes vehicle has this problem in the winter time. whenever the temps outside are 15 degrees or colder, the truck in the morniing will always crank, but then flood out. i always have to put the pedal to the floor to start it, and when it starts, i let it run at 2k rpms for 10 secs and it's fine. any idea what the heck is wrong with the car?
If it idles fine at normal temps than it may not be the IAC valve. What about the intake manifold gaskets? Seems to be a common problem that affects cold starts. Just replaced them on my 01 Sport Trac and now she idles at cold temps like she used to. Used to sputter and sometimes stall when cold.
my mothers 97 explorer does a very similiar thing, when its cold out it will crank over but if you dont keep it revved at about 2k for about a min or 2 it will stall out, if you dont have your foot on the pedal it idles real funky up and down and will stall out immediately but once warmed up its fine , just that initial start, ive tried cleaning the throttle body, and we even had it looked at last year by our mechanic and he said the injectors were dirty so she payed to have that done and it still did it, now last year when this first started the engine light came on then once we had it serviced they shut it off now this year it has been off till the other day when it was idling funky cause she wasnt in the car holding the gas and the engine lite came on again, so.... back to the same thing again, i know there was a problem a few years after she got it with the intake manifold that the dealer took care of cause it was under warranty. other then that it has been a good truck, it has about 70k on it and its the 4.0 SOHC engine. could it possibly be the choke?
i have a '98 explorer 4.0 sohc that had this problem. it wasn't the iac, like i'd hoped (i replaced it). it was the intake gaskets, upper and lower. yes, there's a tsb on this, and it is a well known problem for ford. fyi, i got the dealer to do put in the intake manifold kit, replaced the pcv valve, and while they were in there addressed recall M0012, which was the left chain tensioner (unrelated, but while you're in there). that was a $560 day at the dealer for reference. good luck
Seems as if its a more than common occurence, not sure where to attack it, either the IAC, or the intake gaskets. i have noticed a slight whistle on accleration while it's cold that seems to go away as it warms, wonder if there is a gasket problem?
See if you can pin point the source of the whistle, a short length of garden hose stuffed in your ear works well for this, when you get close to the source, blast it with some wd40 and see if the sound or the idle changes, if so you found it.