My ammeter & coolant temperature gauges have quit responding. Any "easy" ways to check these circuits before I disassemble the dash? And, if the gauges DO turn out to be bad, where can I get replacements?
View 4 RepliesMy '04 Passat 4Motion (station wagon) engine coolant temperature gauge, fuel gauge, and outside temperature display all stopped working in the same time. Interestingly enough, car has 32K miles and just ran out of manufacturer warranty 2 months ago.
What could be happening? Should I be checking fuse box or this may be related to some more serious failure?
Just purchased this truck and noticed the gas and temp guages neither work. Where do I start/ How about fuse box?
View 5 RepliesAll my guages move (needle moves to the right) once I turn on my head lights. Indicating higher egine temp and higer oil pressure. What cause be causing this?
View 4 RepliesI have a 2011 xlt extended cab with a 2.3l 4 cylinder. The truck is great... I put 120,000 miles on it in under a year.
But about a month ago the temperature gauge started malfunctioning. for what ever reason -- the truck is NOT over heating-- the gauge would increase past the "H" and then the temperature light would come on. Because the truck thinks it's overheating -- the engine goes into a "safe mode" and runs with no power. When i shut the motor off and turn it back on temperature gauge resets and the truck will run fine.
Then in another 50 or 100 miles it will do it again. Why is it doing this? I took it to the dealer here in Columbus, Ohio and the mechanic installed a new thermostat and a new "control modulator" (and a part -- not really sure what it is called) anyway, the truck is doing the same thing and the mechanic still does not know
Where the temp sensor for the rear view mirror is located. My truck is a 2011 Ranger with the 4.0 liter, AC, automatic and 4x4. I think it is somewhere by the headlights but not sure.
View 6 RepliesOK...When I leave in the morning and the ambient temperature is cool the truck runs fine. When I leave work and the temperature is warm to hot the truck backfires through intake, pings bad, has a miss and a surge and no power. There is no CE light, this is about to drive me nuts. I was just hoping (doubting) but hoping someone else might have had this problem so I don't just have to start replacing things until it's fixed.
View 1 RepliesI have a 2001 ford ranger xlt 2.3L and the temperature gauge has been staying a cold. And my heat doesnt heat well. I'm guessing I need to replace the thermostat. Before I do that could it be anything else?
View 9 RepliesI have a 94 ranger 5 speed xlt v6 4.0l 288k miles original engine. in the last month the oil pressure has gradually gone way up. a manual gauge shows 65psi at cold start ( in the 90* out side) after a minute of idle it dropped to 60psi, at 2k rpms the psi was 85+. also the water temp has gotten hotter to the point of almost being unsafe. it appears that in the hotter part of the day the psi goes higher. the oil and filter was changed 1200 miles ago. the cooling system has been update in the last year with a new radiator new thermostat. no cross contamination in the fluids, engine runs good other than gauges on dash showing water and oil getting close to unsafe range and manual gauge showing high pressure.
View 14 RepliesI have noticed that my temperature gauge is indicating that usually my truck is running very cool. It seems that it is also somewhat erratic. At times it indicates what I would expect a reading in the middle of the gauge. Other times after running a while it will drop to the lower end (cool) of the gauge and stay there.
I am guessing that the thermostat is sticking open. Is there a way to test the sensors to see if they maybe bad? I have a 99 ranger with a 4cyl. It looks like I have two sensors. If one is bad, how can I determine which it is?
I have a 97 Ranger 2.3 standard shift, No A/C, a pretty simple Ranger with 158,000 miles. About a month ago while do some checking around under the hood I noticed my coolant overflow tank was empty, so I filled it up to the proper level with some anti-freeze mixture. Thinking if the system was low on anti-freeze it would suck what it needed from the recovery tank, wrong! About two weeks ago I noticed that my temperature gauge was NOT registering in its normal position and was considerably lower towards the Cold mark. Heat coming out of the heater was normal.
I opened the radiator cap and everything looked okay. After a few days this would not go away and replaced the thermostat thinking the thermostat was stuck in the open position, wrong again! I burped the system by letting the engine run with the radiator cap off and filled the radiator with anti-freeze mixture every time some of the air was expelled. I did this for a few days and noticed that the engine would not reach normal operating temperature at idle speed! I had to put something on the gas pedal to increase idle speed so the engine would get hot, this is not normal. Finally I got to a point where the radiator would not take anymore anti-freeze mixture, but the problem still exists.
Two things I noticed that will get the engine temperature up to normal, engine speed (RPM's) and not having the heater on. Let me explain, at normal idle the engine will not reach its proper temperature, but when driving down the highway the temperature goes up to normal (about halfway on the scale) no matter if the heat is on or not. When stopped at a light or just idling I can watch the gauge slowly go down towards the cold mark, if I turn off the heater it takes longer to go down to cold. I do know the heater fan is cooling the coolant to a degree (no pun intended), but it shouldn't cool it so much as to make the temperature drop so dramatically. Okay, heater off, riding down the highway, everything normal, come to a stop and idle temperature starts falling slowly, but when I turn on the heater the temperature starts falling faster.
My diagnosis: I have no leaks of anti-freeze, checked and re-checked. I have no symptoms of a blown head gasket, no milky white appearance on dip stick indicating anti-freeze mixing with engine oil, no clouds of white smoke coming out of exhaust, checked tail pipe for anti-freeze, none found, no loss of power and no loss of gas mileage. I changed the thermostat, like I said. Do not think it could be the radiator pressure cap, normally if the cap goes bad the system will have no pressure and the engine will overheat, the opposite of the problem. Water pump, normally if the water pumps goes the coolant will not circulate through engine and will over heat, again, not the problem I am having. Could it be:
1. A long shot, I bought a defective thermostat and it is still staying open.
2. The temperature sending unit has gone bad, very improbable since it does register the correct temperature when truck is moving down the highway.
3. The coolant is spent, again unlikely, it has been in the engine only for about 3 years and still looks clean and green.
4. Have to have a cylinder pressure check to determine actually if the head gasket is really blown or not, which I doubt.
My conclusion is that I still have a huge air lock somewhere in the system and the engine is still not completely filled with coolant and when the rpm's drop not enough hot coolant is reaching the temperature gauge sending unit, but if that much coolant is not in the system, why am I still getting lots of heat blowing from the heater? The vehicles cooling system is not that complicated and there are few parts involved in its proper operation, I think I have covered them all, but somewhere I am missing something to pin point my problem.
1991 Ranger STX, 4.0. Had a leak from the rubber seal on the thermostat. Changed the thermostat (stat 195) and seal. Now my temperature gauge is not showing a constant reading, goes to half way and when the thermo opens the gauge falls down to a quarter. The gauge is cycling this way every time the thermo opens.
View 2 RepliesThe experts who are installing the dash wiring harness on my camry (not exaggeration they really are that good) installed everything perfectly with the exception of the dash not responding. The dash is connected properly but none of the lights nor gauges are reacting. The car turns on and all is good except for this.
View 4 RepliesI looked for any tips on changing the coolant in my '06 2.3L Ranger but found nada. How to best / easiest way to drain the coolant from this little rig? Is there any need to worry about bleeding any captured air in the system once I go to refill the system?
View 11 RepliesI removed what I could, plastic cover and thermostat housing. Looks like I have to pull the intake to get the little bugger out of there. What's the procedure to remove and replace?
View 2 RepliesMy 2002 4.0L V6 Ranger, 4x4 overheated *slightly* this past weekend. I added some water and limped it home with a couple stops, trying not to let it get too hot. I since noticed there is oil in the coolant, so jumped to the first non mechanic's assumption the head gasket was bad. I have had (auto) tranny troubles with this truck in the past and started looking inside today and noticed some red fluid under the truck. I think the tranny fluid cools through the main radiator on this one, yes? If so, do I likely have a bad radiator, or is there another likely possibility?
The only wet areas I can find look like where the hard lines come into the right side (looking from the front) back of the rad. If we can determine that, would I need to replace the radiator, or is there any way to plug the tranny lines and run through a separate cooler? I think this also has a tranny, or oil cooler in front of the main radiator but not sure if that is correct, or what exactly that is. This is my daily driver work truck and will bring work to a stop until I can figure it out.
I have a '90 Bronco II w/ the 2.9L V6 with a head/gasket issue leak. Its burning oil/coolant in #3 cylinder drivers side. I would ask this in the B2 section, but the Ranger section seems to have alot more activity.
I'm wondering what my options are. I'd like to replace the head with a better aftermarket design if possible. I've seen World Products mentioned as a good replacement, but they are no longer making them anymore. Nearest I cant tell, that leaves King and Odessa aka Clearwater heads. On the 'bay Odessa doesn't have the greatest feedback. King looks like a good product, but kinda spendy also. Short of those two, re-man is the only other option.
The casting # on my head doesn't line up either, is the 86TM the better Euro head for the Merkur?
If I keep this engine, w/o doing a 4.0L conversion, I'm tempted to replace both cylinder heads because of the amount of work to tear it down to that point.
This motor has had some valve ticking also, but I've read it can be injectors instead. What should I do? This will only be used as an off highway light trail rig.
I have a 91 Ranger V6 4WD with 150K that has been sitting for 7 years. The last time I drove it (7 years ago) to a mechanic, who diagnosed it with a bad head gasket - leaking coolant and coolant in the oil.
What am I looking at as far as a project: besides redoing the head gasket, what else will I most likely need to do given that its been sitting 7 years?
1999 3.0. Been losing coolant internally. No water in the oil. Been back and forth on doing a full engine swap (its got 250k on it). So finally decided to just try the head gaskets. Anything out of the ordinary on these? Anything to look out for? Any special tools?
View 14 RepliesMy '96 ranger, 4.0, auto transmission has developed a coolant leak. It is at the rear of the engine, passenger side, at or just above the bell housing. I can't quite see where it is leaking from even using an inspection mirror from on top or underneath. The engine runs great. I just finished replacing the power steering pump, ac compressor, dryer and hoses. What is back there? Freeze plug? Do I fear the worst and that the head or block warped? I may drill a hole from the passenger compartment to try and get a better view.
View 4 Replies1997 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 3.0L. So I've replaced my thermostat thinking that would fix the coolant vanishing problem, turns out it did not. Make tank became dry once again and my temp gauge keeps going back and forth from cold to hot.
View 2 Replies