2003 ford explorer problems

[straittactical]

I have a 2003 ford explorer xlt. this morning my wife was going to work and gat about 2 miles down the road and it died. now it turns over but wont start. and the gas pedal is sloppy ( no resistance ) when you turn the key over to accessories you can hear the fuel pump kick on for a few seconds. do you have any suggestions.

 

[jmiller676]

I have a 2003 ford explorer xlt. this morning my wife was going to work and gat about 2 miles down the road and it died. now it turns over but wont start. and the gas pedal is sloppy ( no resistance ) when you turn the key over to accessories you can hear the fuel pump kick on for a few seconds. do you have any suggestions.

Did you check the throttle cable?

 

[straittactical]

no i did'nt. it may have broke i guess.
is that what you are thinking?

 

[Tommy2Tone]

How many miles? My guess is the throttle cable is fine. If it broke it would just idle, not die. My civic did what you are describing. Changed the spark plugs, wires, and distributed cap and it ran fine.

 

[bmmyers08]

could be a bad altinator. i had a cutlass that wouldnt run but if the key was forward you could use the radio and roll the windows down. that lasted for a lil while then eventually the battery died completly and would no longer work either. might look into this. good luck!

 

[sgreen3]

Throttle cable would be fine. Fisrt thing I would check would be all fuse's for the engine(owners manual will tell you which ones control what). Then I would look to see if the engine is getting spark. An go from there.

 

[7th Stepper]

While admittedly I know absolutely nothing about cars, with the exception of where the key goes, and what most of the little buttons do, I DO know that make of car, we owned one a few years ago.

Our Ford Explorer was a lemon from the gitgo! Everything from the bumper to the tail lights went out, on a regular basis. When we had it in for repairs after our breaks failed, for some odd reason the mechanic forgot to reinstall our horn. THAT caused another accident, we got broadsided in the Meijers parking lot by some lady backing out of her spot and hitting us. We were at a dead stand still, and tried to honk at her so she'd know we were there....but we just kept pressing on the middle of the steering wheel and nothing happened.

It got so bad, after the "thingy" on the under carriage that prevents the engines heat from setting anything on fire when/if you park on weeds, underbrush, etc., that when I took it out the next time, the drivers side door fell off. I mean after I opened it, got out and went to shut the door, it completely fell off the hinges and landed flat on it's side in the parking lot right in front of me.

Bill managed to get it back on, but we spent weeks getting in and out of the passenger side, then climbing over to the drivers side so we could drive it. After that we'd finally HAD IT with the darned car we dumped it! We went to a used Chevy dealership to see if we could use it as a trade in on a different car, and when THEY were inspecting it, the spare tire that was attached to the outside of the hatch in back, ALSO fell off, right then and there. Needless to say, we didn't get much for a trade in.

As a general rule, we don't buy Fords in the first place, the only 2 models of vehicles that they make that I even think worthy of the price you pay for them are 1) trucks, they're pretty good, I owned a F100 many years ago and loved it. And the 2) Mustang (all versions), which I've also owned during the years I've been driving. That was the car that I used when learning how to drive a stick shift. I loved it as well. And at least back then all the CHP's in CA were using them as their chase cars on the freeway. I think theirs were more souped up then mine, but it still was a fast little car, and very sweet!

If you ever get one tho, a word of advice. Park it somewhere that no one can get to it while unattended (like overnight at a service shop, bar, ect.). We did during the repairs we needed done one time (my ex had a "boo-boo" while driving it) at the local service shop, thinking that it would be locked up inside over the weekend that they had it. Nope, they left it out sitting in their front lot, and when they called us the following Monday morning, it seems that someone had stripped it clean. They were also able to break into it, and we lost everything in there as well. The asshats even took the Mustang logo's that were fastened onto the side of the car. It was nakked, completely nakked! Needless to say, I was very PO'd when we found that out!

So anyway, those are the only 3 Fords that I know about, and as far as mechanical advice, I can't give you any. As for which cars we liked and disliked, that I can recommend to you. We finally traded the Explorer for a Chevy Blazer, and had no problems with that car at all.

Best of luck, I'm sorry I don't know enough about how it works to be able to help you. So I'll do what I can do, and offer prayers that everything works out for the best for you, asap.

 

[eric001]

I don't know enough detailed info to make a really good guess at what your problem really is... But, if you live on/around the north side of Indy, I do just happen to know a phenomenal mechanic you could take it to--I'm sure he'd have no problem figuring it out and fixing it, and he's very reasonable about prices. PM me if you're interested in his contact info.

 

[dave29]

I had the same thing happen to my 2005 Expedition.

It wound up being the "driver module". It is a module encased in an aluminum housing bolted to the rear driver side of the frame. Apparently this is a very common occurrence, it had a hole ate right thru the aluminum case.

 

[jmiller676]

How do you explain a sloppy pedal then? Combination of things? Updates ST?

 

[straittactical]

well i forgot about this but i see you want updates. WELL i am very embarassed to say. but it wound up being a bird got stuck in the intake hose. how the hell it made it int to air box i dont know. and i feather got stuck on the senser that goes into the intake box. as far as the sloppy pedal. I dont drive the explorer the old lady does and it just feels sloppier than my car.
well go ahead and laugh.
DAM BIRDS !!!