Why would an engine start and then die but if you hold the RPMs at 1500 for a minute it stays running on a 1997 Ford Explorer?

Answer 1

The throttle body needs taken off and cleaned behind the butterfly.(4 bolts and the air intake hose clamp)

Answeri have a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer, basically the same vehicle. we also have this problem. we had it looked at twice. they cleaned the catalytic converters, it was fine for a few months. now it's back again. we either have to backout of the driveway, go dead, crank back up, go... or sit there in neutral and rev it for about 5 minutes, then it's fine. I'm no expert, but the symptoms just sounded the same. go have your catalytic convertors checked... Answersounds like it's the idle air control, small cylender on the top side of the intake, near the throttle body, two wires going to it, two bolts holding it on, if it gets dirty it chokes down the air going to the engine at idle, remove and clean with carb and choke cleaner. let dry reinstall.

ken.

AnswerIt is your IAC (idle air control) valve, located on the throttle body. You can try cleaning the throttle body like the first guy said, that may help; it did wonders for my Ranger once. AnswerI had this problem and it progressively got worse and worse... You really have to take it to someone who knows fords and worked in a Ford dealership. The first person who diagnosed the problem said the intake was dirty an the fuel line was dirty, and all 4 O2 sensors needed to be replaced, total cost of $1,500. Too much for me, so I took it to a guy that used to work in the ford dealership. This guy laughed when I told him about the prior quote... He has seen this problem over and over again in explorers and all it needs is a O-ring on the intake. The whole job cost me $400 and the truck now runs like a champ. AnswerAnother possability is that there are several culprits. You may have dirty fuel injectors (FI) which in turn cause havoc with the O2 sensors. If one FI is working properly and another is clogged causing a stream of fuel to be injected, the O2 sensors will attempt to add or remove fuel and essentially chase the problem.