I have a 1999 Ford Explorer XLS. It’s in fairly decent shape. About 7 months ago it started having idling issues. I would start it up in the morning and it would idle very low, sometimes to the point of cutting off. As long as I have my foot on the gas, it’s OK. When I start it up, the RPMs would go down to ½ or lower whereas they’re normally at 1 ½ or above. When I got on the freeway, it would usually kick back in to normal. But when I do drive on the freeway and it still has its problem, I get an intermittent pulling – very very slight but I feel it (I’m sensitive to my vehicle). Its as if you’re sitting in the seat driving on a smooth surface at a steady pace and you get pushed back ever so gently once every 20 secs or so. It would have this problem once every week or two. I took it to a repair shop and had the fuel filter replaced and some “stuff” put in the tank. That took care of the problem for about 3 weeks. Since then, it’s back again and is becoming more frequent. It happens approx every 3 or 4 days now and lasts anywhere from a minute or two in the driveway to a whole day with several stops. It feels like there’s something in the tank clogging things and when it gets “blown out”, everythings back to normal. But somethings nagging at me that says it’s the fuel injectors or even possibly the timing belt – neither of which has been checked. I don’t want to say the “T” word.

Any suggestions short of buying a doohickey thing that you plug into the cars computer to diagnose it? (The money situation is extremely low or Id take it to the dealer)