I have a 94 aerostar with a 3.0 liter, new plugs,cap,rotor,and wires,new idle control valve,no error codes,still have rough idle, and stalling occasionaly,but when it is at speed it is fine. Can anybody help. Thank you in advance.

 

Did this just happen? Are there any Check Engine Lights?

Check for a loose vacuum line. Sometimes, a backfire from a failed start attempt will blow them off their connections.

 

Welcome Alan,

disregard post about cleaning IAC....eyesight is going

xlt has you on the right path

also check intake manifold and plenum for leaks and retorque bolts

check tranny vacuum modulator line for ATF in line....not good....

 

disregard...

 

thanx both of you ill try that tomorrow.

 

Keep in mind that aeros are known for excessive heat under the hood. Over time this can cause vac lines to harden and come off........Do a good inspection of all of these lines and dont forget the one running to the tranny.

 

Thanks again for the help, now ive got to get time to check ive been working late,ill keep you posted.

 

I cleaned the throttle body today and it seemed to fix my problem. it was caked with what looks like carbon. Thanks for the help , i really like this board and i will continue to check in.

 

good going alan,

first time i cleaned the TB on my Aero, it was like douching the bilge on an oil tanker carrying heavy tar crude....the black syrup ran out all over the top of the engine...build up of PCV combustion gases and oil fumes, dirt/dust leaked thru air filter....14.7 lbs of air for every lb of gas burned....lots of air plus some dust/dirt/crud

with that much buildup in TB, time to give the girl a bottle of Gumout Regane in half tank of gas and a can of Berryman B12 down the throat of the TB to clean the intake valves, combustion chambers and ring packs

we learned something from you also....about TB maint....
idle air gap must have been mostly plugged by crud buildup....haven't seen than one until now

 

Ive never seen a TB that dirty before, Im glad thats all it was. I am going to keep gumout in the tank every fillup to help clean the inside out. Where can i find berryman 96_4wdr? thanx in advance.I really like this site!

 

This sounds like something I would like to try. Can you give me a quick once-over on where to access the throttle body? Everything is so packed in under the hood on my '94 4.0 that I can't seem to find anything if I don't know were to look in advance.

I just did my first tune-up (badly overdue - the plugs where all burnt away, the wires crumbling, and the pcv valve black like coal.) and my hands and arms are all scratched up from reaching in between everything!

What is berryman? I mean obvously it is a brand name, but what is it? Is it called an intake cleaner?

 

Berryman is the name of one of those concentrated solvents for cleaning off oil or fuel deposits, like a really strong version of Gumout. If you use any of this stuff in the gas tank, it will help clean out the fuel system for sure, but it usually won't do much for everything from the intake manifold and before, like the throttle body. Also the PCV feeds into the main air intake, and the gasses it routes can be saturated with oil fumes, which will deposit on the intake parts. It's worse if you have EGR; it also feeds pretty dirty gasses into the intake manifold, which will, again, deposit stuff on parts.

The throttle body is just behind that big rubber hose that's connected to the air box on the other side. To really clean out the throttle body and the intake tract, you should take off the rubber hose and spray the solvent in to drench all the internal surfaces, openning the throttle plate so that the solvent reaches deep into the intake. Then take a long tooth brush and scrub off the crud as deep as you can reach. Then spray some more to rinse off the stuff that you just scrubbed. Then run the engine to suck it all through, but you do need to re-attach the big rubber hose first if your engine has a MAF sensor.

You can also do this to the Idle Air Control valve, to keep it running smoothly.

 

Thanks!! I will try all of this next weekend. along with Mr. Chilton's help maybe. I have both the Hayne's and Chilton's manuals, but I suspect that the person that wrote them never worked on an Aerostar, because the descriptions are often too generic to be helpful.

 

You should never brush or scrap the inside of the TB. There is a hin film that Ford coats the metal surfaces wih that gets the interior of the TB lubricated and helps prevent the deposits from actually bonding to the metal. I have never had a problem with the stuff coming of from just spraying it with TB Cleaner. Never use carb cleaner, because it strips the coating, and it can damage the seals.

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I can't wait until the weekend. I will stop at the Zone tonight or tomorrow and see what Fuel Deposit cleaners they stock. (Someone on another thread called certain brands "Kerosene and Dog ****" - but that sounds sound pretty potent to me!) I will clean the intake, and for good measure maybe I will dump some fuel system cleaner into the gas tank too. I generally try to put in premium detergent gas every other tank or so. It has really helped in the past.

I just checked my codes. Even though the light was ON just before I started the test (you have to turn the vehicle off to test it,) when I hooked up the testor it showed:

- No current faults (code was 111)
- 2 Continuous Fault Codes (aka Stored Codes):

1 - 173 = "Heated exhaust gas Oxygen sensor fault / Rich bank #1"
and
2 - 179 = "Heated exhaust gas Oxygen sensor fault unable to switch/ Rich during part throttle bank #1 "

Any idea on what it is I need to fix? Will cleaning the intake help? The O2 sensor is pretty new.

Also, someone mentioned vaccuum lines that may have come off. Considering how much reaching I have been doing while changing the plugs, this is a possibility. Where should I check for the most common ones?