I drive a 2000 Ranger 2.5 with 265,000 miles. Here’s the story at the moment.
Yesterday morning drove in to work fine, went out an hour later and it started running like a plug wire was pulled loose, VERY ruff. Went back to work and shut it off and started it again. This time it settled down and ran smooth, but the check engine light came on.
Took it to the shop, six hours later got a call telling me they could not find a problem, but the computer thing told there was a miss on #1 cylinder previously.
Drove it home and all was fine. Went out later, started it, the miss was back and the check engine light was flashing. I pulled each wire of the two coils one at a time (8 plug 4 cyl) and found one of the coils was not firing at all. pulled the connector and notice the housing in that area was broken.
Picked up a new coil and installed it. It is now firing, but is still running ruff. Drove it a few minutes thinking maybe the computer had readjust itself (I don’t no nuthing about these computerized cars, just a guess). No change. Dissconnected the battery and shortyed the two cables to reset the comuter. No change, but the check engine light is now off.
Any ideas before I head back to the shop ? Should I replace the second coil and see if that helps ?
Thanks for any ideas.
Could be the spark plug. Examine the spark plugs. Change #1 spark plug that is fired by that damaged coil.
How old are the spark plug wires? Antiques?
The wires and plugs are maybe a year old and were not cheap ones either. The shop said they pulled them (plugs) yesterday and they looked fine.
I guess I’ll pick one up and give that a shot, might have fouled ?
Question: How many coils does this engine have, 4, 8?
Comments: The CEL will light with a misfire of a certain magnitude. If you are sensitive, you will feel it first. When the CEL flashes, you have a misfire that is threatening to damage the engine if you continue to drive it. By disconnecting the battery, you cleared any error codes from the computer and deleted any adaptive information in there. Often engines will run rough for a short period (a few miles or a few drive cycles) after reset. Drive it a little and see what codes have been set. You can often find an auto parts store that will read codes for free. Get the numeric codes and post here or look them up on the internet.
Well, gave up and to the shop it went. To me, missfire means electrical (I didn’t have the actual code, just what the mechanic told me). They found a bad injector, replaced it and all is fine now. Except for the racket from the power steering pump that is, why do these pumps always make so much noise ?
Thanks !