Car wont stay running and theft light blinks!

[thrmaln]

Hello All,

I have a 2000 Explorer sport 2 door and it has an intermittant problem. Every now and then, when I try and start the car, it starts and sounds very rough, as soon as I let off the gas it dies and the theft light blinks continuously. My guess is the car is not reading the key transponder and it is a safety to keep the car from being stollen. If I wait it out (usually 30 minutes) it starts up just fine. If I continue to try and start without waiting it it very rarely works. I also had a check gage light come on after having the trouble with the starting. I looked at the gauges and the gas gauge was all the way down and past empty. I restarted the car and the gauge then worked fine. Has anyone else had this problem? If it is a theft safety feature, is there any manual overide on the car I can reset?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Marc Webster