Revisiting an old issue with my 5.0 (never able to figure it out)

[ttocs]

Guys, thanks for all your replies and help. I haven't forgotten about this, but my Explorer decided to develop a transmission leak and also run rich so I had to address those issues first since it's my daily driver.

Still, I was able to clean the MAF sensor and MAF harness connectors. Aside of that, I was able to do an Idle reset and was able to set idle speed to around 900rpms instead of 1,200 that I had done previously.

I went out for a drive, didn't have much time, but I could feel the car more responsive and idling smoother after the MAF cleanup, though I wasn't able to try to recreate the issue of shutting the car down and restart it after a few mins to see if it's still running rich.

Hopefully I'll have some time during this weekend or take the risk to drive the car to work and see how it drives.

how are you adjusting the idle?

 

[mic_lx]

how are you adjusting the idle?

I adjusted the idle speed with these steps:

1- With engine off, disconnect IAC connector/harness.
2- Turn engine on
3- Adjust idle speed/screw to the minimum possible without engine stalling.
4- Once adjusted, turn off the engine.
5- Disconnect Negative battery cable.
6- Turn on the headlights and press of brake pedal and wait 5-10 mins while doing this. (obviously lights will not turn on but supposedly this should discharge the remaining energy from the ECU capacitors, etc).
7- Reconnect IAC connector/harness and Negative battery cable.
8- Turn engine on and test all your accessories (wipers, lights, fog lights, AC, radio, turn steering wheel end-to-end both sides). You should have a steady idle now.

First time I ever did this my idle was around 1,000 and looks like I was able now to adjust idle between 800 and 900 rpms

 

[mic_lx]

Hey everyone... here's an update on this. (long overdue)

I followed your recommendations and I went and cleaned the MAF. I used a special spray for MAF cleaning. Then I also cleaned the harness connectors with electrical contact cleaner.
After that I did an idle reset speed to see the idle speed as low as possible and now the car iddles around 900rpms (previously it was iddling at around 1,100).

I drove the car for a full week and the driving experience has greatly improved! It's smoother to launch from a stand still, idles better and the issue where the car basically was choking is almost gone, but not 100%.

I can turn off the car and come back 5 - 10mins and the car will no longer wants to choke with excess of gas. Although whenever I'm driving and for some reason I stall the car (stop & go traffic) I can turn on the car again, that is where I will still hear and feel that excess gas is being burned away until I give it some revs and it will clear it out.
Like I said, this is the only way that I can tell the issue is still there, but things have improved A LOT!

By the way.. gas mileage is abysmal! Having a full tank, I will drive it for 2 days and this thing will drink a quarter of a tank in those two days if I'm lucky.