My 2010 Explorer has a high idle when starting it this winter. I kick it down and it quits but have been getting lower gas mileage and it seems to take forever for the motor and tranny to warm up.

If you where 2 gallons low on coolant, then the engine would have ben overheating. It only takes 2 gallons max to fill the system. Otherwise you may have a bad thermostat, replacing the thermostat may help the problem.

He said 2 jugs of coolant so I assumed 2 gallons. It never overheated which is why I was surprised when he said how much he added. I have been keeping a close eye on temperature and coolant level. Looked for leaks several different times but never saw any. Will try the thermostat! Thank you!

If you think you are loosing coolant, smell the exhaust. See if it has a sweet smell to it, and you would notice more white smoke coming out the tail pipe. This would be a head gasket.

I got the thermostat changed today and they cleaned a few things and no more high idle when starting it and seems to work great now! Am hoping that is the last time for having problems for a while as I love my Explorer! Didn't take anytime at all for it to warm up after I had let it sit for a couple of hours. Thank you for your help!

Your welcome.

Something still wasn't quite right so I took it to the Ford garage and after going through things, they are going to check for a stuck lifter. Hopefully soon it will get done and am hoping to not have anymore problems after this for at least a year. They did find a tiny hole at bottom of radiator but said to just keep an eye on it and to top it off every now and then.

So far so good, thanks for letting me know. There are oil additives to put in to try and loosen up sticky lifters. I hope they try that first as replacing the lifters would be expensive.

No stuck lifter. To check anything with the timing, they would have to remove the whole motor. Keep driving until something kicks a code.

Yea, if it aint broke, then don't fix it.

All in all this last year with this vehicle has been a pain in the butt when it started getting colder out again. This time though, I think we found both problems. The throttle body motor that had been cleaned several different times, started making a noise(grinding)under the hood quite often when cold but not after it had warmed up! I went in and hung outside in my vehicle while it cooled down completely for an hour and a half. Then when I started it and it did what it was doing, I got the mechanic and pin pointed the throttle body motor was the problem. It's over a $500 part, $600 to fix! On top of it though, my thermostat had to be replaced the next week as I wasn't aware the throttle body motor was what was affecting the thermostat. To the people where I have read several places about it feels like it's not shifting right and doesn't have much power when going up a hill and you think you might have a transmission problem, you don't. The same with if you think your clutch fan is a problem, I bet it's your thermostat. Mine quieted right down once the new one was put in. I noticed my shifting was great again too and am so happy to finally have it figured out. I never had this much problems with my Dodge Dakota but it did have some. My son told me to get a Honda! I have had 2 thermostats go out in a year and didn't realize they go so quick but hope next time it happens I know exactly what to do! And just because a part is expensive, the mechanic shouldn't have tried talking me out of figuring out what was going on with it, because this whole last year has been one, big, pain in the butt that was costly to my parents and time consuming and severely frustrating for me as my boyfriend suffered a stroke that killed him and they did lifesaving measures, so he has been recovering from that for 6-1/2 years. If we were to break down and have to walk during the winter, he wouldn't be able to. The mechanics now a days ought to be smart enough to figure these things without a code being thrown, as mine never wants to give one!

I had the rear pinion seal replaced for free by our landlord as he has done some before! It had always been a problem with it was going to leak at sometime, but they never knew when. It was during Thanksgiving. Good thingcwe had been prepared and had already planned on staying home. I am hoping this winter is problem free!