DPowell

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any help.


I have a 03 F150 4.6l around 210K miles. Truck has always ran just great with very little problems. I love it!! Went Xmas shopping two weeks ago and leaving the house the truck ran fine. Got to the mall and came to a stop and truck just died. Put in park, re-started it, put in gear and it died. Put in N, restarted it, feathered the gas a bit as I put it in Drive, pulled away from SS it ran just fine. Rest of night on way home was kinda like that, driving on interstate home at 70, drove just fine, no misses, no problems at all but come to a stop and ....


Basically in P it idles just perfect. Put in gear, either D or R and it dies. Play with the gas to get it moving and it runs perfect until I come to a stop. I changed the Idle Air Control Valve, cleaned the Mass Air Sensor. Checked Vacuum lines, tried to test the EGR valve with a vacuum pump and it seems to do operate as it should, although I did not take it off and bench test it. I don't want to just start replacing parts. I have read some of the posts on here of similar problems and what they did. It doesn't seem like the TPS or any of the O2 sensors. Any ideas??

DPowell

Hmmm, 58 views and not a single idea or comment ?

Chillout

I'm sorry no one has offered insight. I was thinking iac valve till you said you replaced it.

nbrowser

Sounds to me like the torque converter lockup, isn't releasing, similar to a manual trans when you don't put it in neutral or press the clutch in while stopping, it dies, check into that. Basically the converter is in lock up mode as if you were driving down the road but when your coming to a stop, it isn't releasing the lockup and thereby is a direct input to the trans instead of the fluid slip allowed when it releases the lock up.

DPowell

I was kind of afraid it might be something like that.
Is there anyway to resolve that that does not include taking the engine and/or tranny out?


If I took it in and had the fluid drained out and the converter\tranny flushed? Could that fix it?


Looking for inexpensive options for that?

1997FordF150XLT4.6V8

My 97 was doing this for awhile and I never could figure it out. I recently had a new engine put in it and it was still doing it so I took it back to the shop and apparently there was an idle screw on my BBK throttle body and was causing it to run like **** and shut off. I know mine is different but to me it sounds like a sensor and I think it could be your Throttle position sensor. I know you said you don't wanna throw parts at it but they are pretty inexpensive. It could be something major but to me that sounds like a sensor especially if after you get it going its fine.

DPowell

I was reading a little about others having this type of issues and came across posts about a torque converter solenoid or the vehicle speed sensor causing issues like this? any thoughts on that?

DPowell

From what I read on the TPS sensor it didn't seem like it would cause these types of problems when it goes bad. That was why I thought to exclude it from possible causes just now. Also when it goes bad it generally throws a code which mine does not.

nbrowser

While I don't specialize in transmissions but am a mechanic, I can only recommend calling a transmission shop regarding this, if I recall the solenoids for TCC lockup are generally located in the valve body accessed when the pan is off. If the solenoid is indeed sticking in the on position, they can probably easily diagnose it and hopefully repair it without much hassle. Can't hurt to call a trans shop to make sure though.

pas

DPowell. Did you ever get this issue resolved? My 4.6 started doing the exact same thing yesterday. I'm not sure if your truck did the samething but mine doesn't stall in gear until it reaches full operating temp. Truck runs smooth at idle in neutral or park cold or warm.