Ford Ranger / B-Series :: Temperature Gauge Indicating That Truck Is Running Too Cool
Sep 6, 2012
I 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?
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I 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
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I 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?
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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.
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OK...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.
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Although my lil' truck (2006 Ranger XLT, 2WD,with 4-cyl / 5spd, and 115K miles) has been running just fine since I bought it about a year & 5K miles ago, I suspected it still had its original spark plugs and I figured I should change them before problems arrived.
As I suspected, the plugs that I took out looked to be original. I measured their gap and they all had excessive plug gaps - around 0.052" gap. I installed the four new AUTOLITE APP104 (double platinum) and checked their gap, and they were a bit tight at 0.042". My book says they should be at 0.044" gap. But I installed them at 0.042 anyway, figuring they'll burn wider in time.
One by one, I smeared a small bit of never-seize on the plug threads & at the plug-to-cyl head tapered edge. I smeared a dab of Dielectric Grease around at the top of the plug to ease the plug wire re-install and hopefully calm any possible arching. The plug wires came off the plugs easy enough and went back on just as easy.
I hit the key and the engine fired right up. It idled rough as expected. However, it continued to idle rough and if I raised the RPM level, it would respond, but still ran rough. It is throwing a 'Check Engine Light' on the dash cluster now - whereas it wasn't prior to the new plugs.
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I have a '96 Ranger XLT. Just recently the dome light stays on while the truck is running. I have checked both doors and door frames. For the life of me I do not see a switch. The light does go off eventually after the truck is shut off (without killing the battery). What or where is the switch for this light..
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I have a 92 ranger 6cyl 4L. The truck stopped running while driving then kicked on again, it did this several times over about 20 minutes then finally died and now I can't get it started. I recently replaced the fuel pump and filter and spark plugs and wires. I get spark if I ground the plug and some gas will pour out of the fuel pressure test valve when I stick a screws driver in. When I check engine codes I get an all pass. Truck will turn over and sometimes run for 2 or 3 seconds but that is it.
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I have a 99 ford ranger xlt 4.0 ohv basically it sputters so bad while driving it sounds like a dump truck but it all started when I changed my o2 sensors but in doing so I broke my heater control valve and when I was going down the road it started sputtering well it started sputtering so I checked the o2 sensors there good and I changed the heater control valve. But nothing so I changed my coil pack spark plugs and wires but still nothing. But on my reader it says cylinders 2,3, and 4 are misfiring and bank 1 and 2 are running lean plus it has a bad aroma of gas in the engine compartment but when it idles its somewhat smooth but when I'm driving it its horrible the sputtering is so bad it takes awhile to get up to speed plus I'm only getting 100 miles to a whole tank that's like 8 or 9 mpg I need to fix this soon. This is my only transportation...
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2001 Ranger-4 Liter-169,000 Odometer Miles ... Over the past year I would get an occasional CEL indicating PO442 Leak Detected (small leak). I would simply erase it. Now it's occurring more frequently at approximately 300 odometer miles.
There must be lots a places for a small leak to develop. But, I am thinking that there might be one or two places that are somewhat common.
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I have a 86 Ranger with the 2.3L fuel injected 4 cylinder and a 5 speed manual transmission. I can drive it for hours on the highway but if I get caught in stop and go traffic, it stalls and won't restart for about 10 minutes. When trying to restart it acts as if it is fuel starved. Spraying carb cleaner in the throttle body does make it run for a second or two. I was getting a code 18 & 67 before I changed the ignition module, now I just get code 67 or 11. I have done the following:
-Changed both fuel pumps, tank and frame rail pump (did one at a time, no improvement)
-Changed all fuel filters (in line filter, fuel reservoir filter and tank filter)
-Changed ignition module on distributer
-Changed both relays that control fuel pumps
-Cleaned battery terminals and body ground connections.
-New gas tank fill cap
I'm at a loss now as to what to do. I have been checking the codes with my multi-meter. I do not have a OBD1 diagnostic tool.
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When I test drove this 2004 Ranger Edge 4.0 I purchased about three weeks ago it had mucho AC cooling. So much so I had to turn it way down.
Today, when I could have used it, the AC has gone south. There is very moderate cool air coming out even on the turbo setting. Was actually better with the AC off and the windows open when the truck was on the road.
I got a sick feeling thinking maybe the dealer topped off the coolant knowing it had a leak but I have a push-on plastic coolant gauge and it is reading "filled" into that blue area about 25% of the way with the truck at idle and the AC on. The compressor is cycling on and off... mostly off, though. Not sure if that is normal or ??
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I have a 1997 Ford Explorer with 5.0, I have replaced the thermostat and the radiator cap, I drive the truck to work in the mornings (12miles) and it is fine. We live on a mountain and on the way home after getting to the top of the mountain the temperature gauge goes past middle and nears the red but does not overheat completely. Once home I open the hood and the overflow is steaming or sometimes boiling, and I have checked thermostat again to make sure and it is operating normal, I have been told fan clutch, water pump, and I don't want to just throw money at guesses.
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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.
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Tempature gauge on my 2001 sierra (4.8) has been running low for awhile. The highest it will reach is round 160. It's currently running rough/rich and bad mpg. I replaced the ECT sensor but didn't work. I'm not sure if there are two ECT sensors on this model. I don't think it's the cluster. Is there a second sensor I'm overlooking?
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I 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.
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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?
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I drive a 2002 Honda Civic EX with about 105,000 glorious miles on it. I decided to hit the road and made a weekend road trip to pick up a stranded family member. I live in Ohio and drove Lou Dobbs, my car, to Florida. It was about 950 miles one way. All was well until I got to Florida. I hit my first traffic jam and was sitting with the windows down enjoying the Florida air. Suddenly, the temperature gauge started to climb! It got pretty close to the red but traffic began to flow at that point. As soon as I reached 40-50MPH the temp began to fall again. I picked up my cargo and headed back. Each time I would hit traffic or a red light the temp would climb without hesitation. This is without the A/C running. After I got back to Ohio, i asked a friend who knows about cars. Over the phone, he had me remove the radiator cap and reservoir cap to take a look at the fluid levels. After this though, the car has never overheated! I don't understand. Can air get into the system and I let it out by removing the caps? I can sit in rush hour traffic for a half an hour with the AC running and the needle stays right in the middle. Should I still take it in to be looked at?
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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.
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Have a 2001 Subaru Legacy GT, 5 speed manual, 194,000 miles.
A few months ago, I started noticing that my cooling fans are running more often. Even when it is cold out and the temperature gauge was at normal temperature. The fans would turn on, and just keep running. Obviously, they would turn off when I shut the car off, but if the car is on, they will stay on. However, I found a trick to get them to turn off. If I am in neutral, and I race the engine up to around 3000 RPM's or so for about 10 seconds, and let it come back down to idle speed, the fans are now off. Works almost every time, not just a coincidence.
I know my car, and this has never done this before. I know it is not normal. I have replaced the following- thermostat, coolant temperature sensor, flushed the system, changed the fan relays, and most recently, I put a brand new Subaru radiator in. All of this, and the issue is still there. I am beginning to wonder if it is the water pump. Coolant not circulating fast enough, so the fans come on to cool down, but when I race the engine, the water pump works harder circulating coolant faster? Also recently, the temp gauge starts to climb going up long steep grades. If I pull over and race the engine, the temp gauge drops almost immediately back to normal. The pump is not leaking or making any noise, so I'm not sure if it could go bad any other way.
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I have a 98 f150(4.6 V8) that has 'seemingly' overheated for about 5 seconds twice in the last month. I noticed the temperature gauge went all the way up after about 1 mile of travel, then it immediately fell back down to normal. The truck has 198k miles.
I flushed out the system using a Peak Flushing Tee, replaced the thermostat with spring facing the engine block, and refilled the system.
I haven't had another overheating instance but I am having problems with my heater....the truck seems to warm up fine and the heat starts off working well. The temperature gauge reads normal for a few minutes then drops and I lose the heat. The truck blows cool air for a while, then will start blocking hot air again.
I believe the water pump has been replaced fairly recently...the pulley has no slack and I don't see any leaks or wetness around the pump or its weep-hole.
I read it could be a blend door or blend door actuator. I don't hear any funny clicking and obviously get some heat.
Should I try another new thermostat? Intermittent water pump problems?
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