I recently purchased a 2001 5.4L F150, and it has been dropping below 500RPMs and stalling out everytime I start it up in cold weather; the only way I can keep it from not stalling it out is by giving it some gas, however long it takes to warm it up. Could it be the AIC, or would it be something else?

I was trying to take the AIC out so I can see if it's clogged, but it's in a very awkward spot, I can't really loosen the bolts.

 

It's the IAC. I had the exact same problem and changed mine out this morning. It's a tight fit but can be done without taking the throttle off. 39.99 at advance auto parts.

 

Did the PCM throw a code? If you got a code for the IAC, you'd know almost for sure it was bad.

I've never taken just the IAC off by itself, but it wouldn't hurt to take off the entire manifold and give it a good cleaning. Might not take all that much longer than just taking off the IAC; it is a bitch to get at and having a nice, clean intake will make the truck run better. Either way hope you get your problem solved as easily as possible.

 

An easy test is to poke it a few times with a screwdriver, or use your jack handle.
It fouls and sticks, a few good whacks frees it.

I beat on mine for a month because they were on backorder.

That two foot driving with power brakes is for the birds.

 

It's my IAC, I beat it with a screwdriver this morning and it fired right up. I'm thinking about removing it and cleaning it with some carb cleaner, or would that be a bad idea? I plan on getting a new one, but it might be a few weeks.

 

carb cleaner is fine

i cleaned mine with carb cleaner almost a year ago and its still holding up. the truck started to surge at idle again kind of bad just recently. so i cleaned it again and sprayed a little bit of wd-40 in it. so far so good!

 

forty bucks and ten minutes of work, c'mon, replace it.

 

I ended up removing the whole throttle body since I accidently snapped one of the bolts on the IAC, luckily it unthreaded from the other side. So I cleaned the whole throttle body as well, and my truck has been running very smooth since.