I have a 95 Ford Explorer. When I turn off the key, the engine “glugs and sputters” a couple of times before dying. What’s up and what do I need to do to fix that? I have very little knowledge about cars and engines, but love the old junk wagon and want to take care of it. I tried buying better gas, but it didn’t help.
The problem to which you refer is called ‘dieseling’. Carbon build up in the combustion chamber retains heat and is sufficient to ignite fuel in the absence of a spark. Check to see if the throttle linkage is free and allows closure-a partially open throttle can be contributory. Some vehicles feature an anti-dieseling solenoid to provide positive fuel cutoff, but I don’t know if your vehicle has one.
That’s called “dieseling”. I had an old Pontiac Le Mans that did that. I fixed it by selling it for $50.
Thanks! I’m afraid I lost you after the word “dieseling”, so I translated that into “take it to the shop”. I do love that car and hate to think of it as getting old and wearing out. Maybe if I say the word dieseling to them, they won’t realize how car-stupid I am!
I hope it’s not that bad, Doctor. Do you think she’ll live?
When is the last time it had a tuneup?
You know…new plugs, rotor, carb cleaned, etc.
Tell 'em you’re running too rich and to check the idle, as well.
The car was a friggin boat, and I hated it. Bought it for $100 off of a friend, and it lasted the summer, so I had no problems dumping it tor half a c-note. While I’m not particularly fond of Fords, but I think I’d have taken a different course of action on a 95 Explorer.
Maybe. 
2-3 years ago. Is that a yearly thing?
Oh, I had one of those once (a junker). I think I bought it for about $80.00 and left it on the side of the road somewhere.
This Ford has been a great car- I told DH I was going to go to Auto Nation, buy the biggest car I could find, buy the first car I saw, and I wasn’t even going to test drive it. And I did. Boy did I get lucky that day.
Never mind what I said about an anti-dieseling solenoid. They were used in vehicles with carburetors, and yours is a 95-surely injected. (I was thinking of my 85 Ford). :smack:
Have you changed the air filter? Are any codes set by the ECM? (Is the Check Engine or Service Engine light on?) For that matter, is the ECM powered and operating?
Plugs, rotor, and cap should not be an annual event for a 95. What does your owner’s manual say for frequency of replacement for these parts?
Whenever I try to diagnose a problem, I start with manufacturer defaults. Set it up the way it was engineered from the get-go, and many times the problem goes away.
Well that’s not for sure but I wouldn’t let mine go for two years. Besides it doesn’t cost much, not that hard to do and most anyone with a set of tools and some brains can do it. Clean the carb good, put a new filter, change the plugs, put a new dist cap, anything else simple…pretty cheap mechanic work and probably needs it anyway.
What’s the mileage?
Do you own a timing light? If so check it.
A couple of degress advance on the distributor should take care of what you’re experiencing. If you’d rather not or don’t have time to deal with it right now. Just kill it while it’s still in gear. Then set it to park.
BTW My everday vehicle is a 1965 Ford F-100 with 400Kon the body and over 200K on the “new” motor. I’ve rebuilt it once AND it’s running pretty damned good right now.
New paint, did it myself>Bright Ford (candy) red outside w/chrome & white letter tires, w/black and red interior new headliner and black leather upholstery. 302with Edelbrock, headman, holly and hurst…
Yeah, I tune it up at least once a year. It’s 40 years old and will be running when all this new shit is dead and buried. 
Not carbureted? I wondered about this. Still I’d do the rest anyway.
DWC is porbably correct about it not being necessary every year. But if it’s been three years and depending on the mileage etc. I’d still do it. Get a little more burn on that extra fuel.
That’s cool I wish it was that easy for me. I’ve got that vehicle Johnny Cash sang about, 'member
Basically, you’re burning the fuel left over between the fuel injector and the cylinders. The engine’s hot enough to ignite the fuel-air mixture, and it then burns pretty normally, just at a very low engine speed and very retarded ignition timing.
I’d say that’s not really a problem - you’ve got oil pressure so you’re not damaging the engine. If you start hearing knocking on acceleration, the engine may need to be decoked (essentially, you need to scrape the engine heads to get rid of the carbon buildup). It’s a fun, if dirty, way to spend a day.
PS: That’s a damned bad way to buy a car. “The biggest I can find” - Why? 99/100 of the time, the smaller car is more fun to drive and cheaper to run.
Sheesh…after trying to read that last entry I wouldn’t blame you if you just ignored me from now on. At least I don’t have to run diagnostics on my old truck. I’d never get the coding right. :rolleyes:
Like t-keela said (and what my dad swears by), as your getting close to where your going to park it (say 5-10 feet away), assuming you don’t have any major manuvering to do, just turn the ignition off and coast the rest of the way (leaving it in drive). This should (if I understand it correctly) stop additional fuel from flowing into the engine, and drive what’s left of it out.
I know, but I had a sickly runt of a kid that needed a bunch of medical equipment hauled around with him every where he went, plus a standard issue kid with all her stuff. I got tired of loading the oxygen tank, etc, and my back was killing me from bending over with all that stuff. I’m short so a tall car was what I really wanted and most tall cars are also big.
Ha! “Drive,” no pun intended. 
You know, I believe I can do some of those things! I’m pretty sure it is fuel injected, but I think I can do the other stuff you mentioned like filter, plugs and distributer cap myself, but maybe not the timing light or the distruibuter thing. At least if I do that and it doesn’t help, those are things the shop won’t have to charge me for. I do change the oil regularly and whenever I go there they always fix something else, too. I’d have to look at the receipts to see what exactly has been done, but I do know I got a new filter last time.
It’s got 120,000 + miles, but I think I can keep it for a good while longer. I’m feeling all inspired now (as opposed to just worried).
Thanks everyone!
No lights are on, but I don’t know what an ECM is. I’m going to try to do the plugs, rotor and cap myself and see what happens.
ECM=Electronic Control Module or computer. This piece of electronics, about the size of a decent paperback book takes in data from: MAF (mass air flow) sensor, Oxygen sensor, TPS (throttle position sensor), CTS (coolant temperature sensor),
Hall effect sensor (in distributor), CPS (crankshaft or camshaft position sensor), and decides how much fuel each injector should deliver, and the position of the spark timing relative to TDC (top dead center). There is much more, but this is the short read.
Should the ECM be disabled, either by internal fault or a bad fuse, ground, power source, the vehicle will run on a default basis without proper engine management. Performance will suffer. I’ve also seen instances where a bad alternator is delivering dirty power to the engine and foulding up the sonsory inputs.
A good alternator delivers a waveform of symmetric humps-looks like inverted U’s. Dirty power is spiky when viewed on an oscilloscope and can cause a multitude of problems.
I know this is way more than you wanted to hear, but it’s the Straight Dope.