Ford - Ranger :: Cylinder Misfire - Spark Plugs Keep Going Bad
Oct 22, 2011
I purchased a 2000 Ford Ranger last year. Within the first two months of ownership, the vehicle was having a cylinder 4 misfire. To fix it, I replaced the fuel filter, plugs, wires and cap - replacing the wires, plugs and cap fixed the issue. The issue went away for four months when cylinder 4 misfired again. I brought it to a repair shop and they again replaced the wires and plugs. The vehicle now has a cylinder 6 misfire.
There has to be something causing these plugs to continually go bad. Rather than just replacing the plugs again, I'd like to attempt to be proactive and fix the root of the issue. I've googled the issue and some of the forums seem to indicate a bad EGR valve.
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Ok , i have a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GT V6 GM 3.8, my car didnt have any misfires until after i changed my Lower Intake Manifold Gaskets. After changing the gaskets and putting everything back together. The car ran fine. The next day i took it an hour and 30 min away, while driving there it started misfiring and shaking,rough idle at an hour into the trip. The check engine light went to blinking. The Next day i drove it all the way back home in the condition. Put code scanner to it, and received P0303 "Cylinder 3 Misfire":
So i automatically assumed it was the coil pack because i just installed new wires and plugs a week before changing Lower Intake manifold Gasket. Bought new coil pack. Still getting rough idle and P0303 code. So i decided to take a look at Cylinder 3 Spark plug and it was dry black, carbon fouled:
So went and bought new spark plug, installed it, started car and still rough idle and misfiring. Took the new spark plug out and it had been FOULED also ( DRY BLACK AGAIN). So i was told to switch a coil pack around. I did it and the started car, took away some of the rough idle, car actually wasn't misfring or shaking, would run smooth for about 5-8 seconds then start misfiring (Didn't that until i switch coil packs around).
Next Decided to pull out the rest of the plugs from the back and all of them were WET with GAS!! and 2 Spark plugs are just dry fouled!! (Cylinder 3, Cylinder 1). If I can figure this out i will fully have my car back to running correctly.
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2004 5.4L ... Codes indicate a firing issue on #4 cylinder, figure it's the coil pack. They bought truck used a few years ago and plugs have not been changed since they have owned it. I was going to change plugs while I was under the hood. While checking threads on this engine I picked up on plugs being a major job unless you know the tricks. So what tricks do y'all have up your sleeve to keep from breaking plugs?
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2004, 4L, sohc - Is there any issues or problems changing spark plugs?
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I have been burning up spark plugs in the left hand cylinder (when facing the engine from the front). I have burnt up two plugs in a month in that cylinder. I have low compression in that cylinder and my oil consumption is high as well (1QT every 300 miles). My question is, is the oil fouling plugs and the oil consumption connected or is there other things I should look into?
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Replaced plugs and coils after I got a misfire on cylinder 2. (cheap made in china coil packs off of autoparts warehouse)
Also, plugs had 30k miles on them with original packs. Got it again.
Replaced coil on cylinder 2. Got it again.
Bought Denso double platinums. Got it again.
Moved coil packs around. Misfire on cylinder 4.
Checked plugs, good dry non corroded. Its always 2 or 4.. not 1 or 3
Slow drive with less than 30% gas pedal action it runs "ok". If I go uphill or need to step on it, not happening. Bucks like a mule.
I dont think its the fuel injector... Ordered the red audi packs off europaparts. Might need to check connections. what do i do?
I've been also reading that it could be the cam follower. I'm willing to check it and then force the dealer to fix it under the extended warranty, but if its broken I cant put it back in. The dealer is 50 miles from me.
It happened a morning I was out of gas and used .... regular! But did put in super right after that. I had spare regular gas in a container (fresh) for the generator.
Then used fuel additives. I have also been using fuel additives every other fill up just to protect injectors. I know it wont do anything other than that because of direct injection.
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After getting some misfire and hesitation (code reading says misfire on cylinder 3), it looks like I'll be doing my first spark plug change on my 24V VR6. I've ordered all of the plugs, and have made sure that I'v got all my tools on hand. Hopefully, the DIY's I've found on Vortex will be as useful as they look .
My car has 163K on the clock, and spark plug change has been on my short list of to-do items, as I'm not sure of the maintenance history of the car. Hopefully, the spark plugs will do the trick, but coil packs will be done soon too.
Would it be OK to change just the coilpack on cylinder 3 and leave the others alone if they are all working OK? Or just shell out the cash to change all six at once?
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I have a 1987 Ford Ranger 2.3L, it's the truck I learned to drive in (stick at 13yo) and the 1st car I crashed too... So now this baby is almost 30 years old and recently had a minor restoration...
Engine was pulled out and all gaskets were changed, spark plugs, wire... All that stuff... It has been running pretty good, however last week a water line broke on the Left side near the spark plugs (if you are looking at the truck)
Since then It has absolutely Zero power. The slightest hill and even when pedal to the floor will lose power. Yesterday went from the start of a hill at 60mph in 4th to 20mph in 2nd because it didn't have the guts to go 1/3 mile uphill... I checked everything I could, and my brother took it to the exhaust guy who made a small hole on the Catalytic Converter and said it was good, but he could tell it was running too rich...
I replaced some of the vacuum lines last night, I found a lose one on the fuel pressure regulator (I think that's what it is, Its towards the engine firewall on top).
Idles beautifully, drives great, no rough shifting, pinging or knocking, no misfires. So that's what has me stumped... Runs great but just no power... Also before water line broke it was running fine with power...
1987 Ford Ranger
2.3L FI
5sp manual, Rwd
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I am getting a cylinder 5 misfire and this has been a "on again off again" situation since last August. I took it around to a few places and the general solution was to get new spark plugs. After doing a bit more research I was advised to change the coil cover. I did that and it fixed the problem. Then about 4 months later the light came on again. I happened to change the air filter and the light went off. I though great, problem solved! not so much, when i went to the mountains the other day the light came back on. I did my research again and I have decided to get the plugs changed. Its a 2005 f150 with 94,500 miles on it.
I am told its time to change them regardless. I started calling around and getting quotes and have been told by multiple shops that ford made the plugs in my truck in a bad way. They have been telling me to change them and breaking them is a 50/50 shot. THEN, when they quote me they charge a rate to replace them plus the plugs themself. If they happen to break one then the customer pays for the new one. Do the plugs would really break that easy and should I plan on replacing some of them?
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Driving last night and my 08 died after searching I found the ICM fuse was blown. I replaced the fuse and now it has a misfire on cylinder 6. I have changed the coil with no luck. I replaced the plugs and wires about 2 weeks ago and I don't find any problem with the plug or wire. I checked at the coil and there is no spark at all on cylinder 6. I was thinking the ICM is bad but was wanting some opinions.
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I am changing my own spark plugs for the first time. I have a spark plug wrench, dielectric grease, anti-seize compound etc.
I have a Haynes manual for my 2002 Toyota Corolla. The book was written before Irridium plugs were used. Should I tighten the spark plugs to the same torque specifications as regular plugs? The book says 158 inch pounds. How do I know I have tightened them to the right amount?
How do I avoid cross threading the spark plugs? What happens if you cross thread the spark plugs (assuming the car seems to be running fine)? Would I need a new engine or expensive repair when it is time to replace the spark plugs again?
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Getting error code p0302, misfire in 2, pulled the plug and had oil on the treads and on the lower part. My guess is the valve cover gasket, but I'm not 100 percent sure.
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I have a problem with a 2009 Ford Ranger with a 4.0 V6 that no one can seem to figure out. It occasionally goes into fits & misfires on cylinder 2 at idle. This is a sporadic problem, it does not do it all the time. Code stored is always P0302 (misfire at cylinder 2). Occasionally it will also store a code P0000 (random misfire at startup) in addition to the P0302. The engine runs great at all throttle settings other than idle & even when this condition occurs it will run fine as soon as I step on the throttle pedal. The problem only occurs when the vehicle is partially warmed up. It is OK (but not perfect) when very cold & the problem goes away & the engine idles just fine after driving down the highway 10 or 20 miles & fully warming up. If I just putter around town it will sometimes do it all day, other times the misfire will go away completely after shutting the engine off for a few minutes & then restarting (this is after the engine is fully warmed up).
Strangely, running the air conditioner seems to reduce the roughness of the misfire or cause the problem to cease. The truck has 180,000 miles on it & was previously used by a friend of mine who was a rural mail carrier so the engine has a lot of hours idling in addition to the total miles. It does not use or leak any oil or smoke & runs great except for when it is misfiring on cylinder 2 at idle. It does not use any coolant so it cannot be leaking coolant into that cylinder under certain conditions. The truck was always serviced at a Ford dealership & received impeccable maintenance as this was used as a mail truck. After I clear the computer by disconnecting the battery & leaving it over night, the truck will run fine for a while but eventually the misfire at idle returns & always is on cylinder 2. Sometimes it takes a month for the problem to return, sometimes just a few days. Spark plugs & wires have been replaced. Using a spark tester I have verified that the coil is firing when the misfire condition occurs. I have not checked fuel pressure but did replace the fuel filter. I cannot find any vacuum leaks & the engine normally pulls 20 inches of vacuum at idle when it is idling correctly & around 17 when it is misfiring. I replaced the intake manifold O rings & fuel injector O rings just in case, as it was easy, & I wanted to move the number 2 fuel injector to another cylinder to see if the problem followed to that cylinder.
After switching the number 2 & number 6 injectors the fault code still identifies a cylinder number 2 misfire (P0302) which rules out a bad injector. I checked the IAC valve & it is clean & I do not think the misfiring cylinder would always be the same if the IAC valve was the problem. I have not replaced the coolant temperature sensor as I do not think it could cause the same cylinder to always be the culprit either. There are no leaks in the hose between the MAF sensor & the throttle body & the hose is clean. The throttle body is free of carbon. The compression in all cylinders is fine (& even). I do not want to pay a mechanic a ton of money to start throwing parts at this thing & maybe get lucky & fix it. I am thinking that the ECU could be the problem (especially because the problem goes away for a while after flashing the ECU) but do not want to spend the money on a new ECU & then find out the problem is still present. Other than the ECU, I have addressed all the systems & components that are specific to cylinder number 2 that I can think of, & most that are not specific to cylinder 2 but specific to idle quality. However, I have not been able to fix the problem.
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2001 Ford Ranger 4.0L V6... Okay so I bought my truck last September with 100K on it. Ran perfectly fine. No problems for for the first two months and then it started to misfire when at idle. Check Engine Light came on. Scanned and got a random multiple misfire code. I then changed the plugs and wires. Had to repair the threads for cylinder two. Did all that and it kind of but not really solved the problem. A few weeks later got another check engine light. Cylinder 3 misfire. Changed ignition coil. No better. Shortly thereafter I checked again whilst at work and read misfire on 3 and now 2. Currently replacing the intake manifold o-rings and cleaning out intake.
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This has been an issue for about 8 months now. I'm getting a misfire on cylinder 4. So far compression test, new gas filter, fuel injectors cleaned, spark plugs and wires replaced. coil pack replaced. Heater valve was leaking but was replaced.
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OK, got a check engine light today when I fired up the Ranger.
Took it down and got the codes read it have a miss fire on cylinder 5. Picked up some plugs and wires, got to get those E3's out of there, but kind of think that's really not going to fix the problem. So that probably leaves the coil pack or injectors.
So what's the consensus on the best coils to use?
Also, being an 18 wheeler for more years than I care to remember, I've learned swapping just 1 injector is never the way to go. So whats the best type of injectors to get and where the best place to get them should it come to that?
Oh, it's a 2000 3.0L Flex fuel 5 speed.
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My parents 2000 Ranger has an CEL for cylinder 4 misfire, but it will clear on its own and then start up days/weeks later, is this common? Could it be an injector?
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I have a misfire mystery going on in my girlfriends 00 ranger. What is going on, is there is an intermittent misfire on #4. I have an ultra gauge hooked to it, so most of the time when it does it, it will flash a pending code. A lot of the time, the pending code will go away, but sometimes it will set the PO304 code.
First I tried a tune up. New plugs and wires, air cleaner, cleaned out the throttle body. This cured it, for a short while. Then we were back to the pending code / setting code for #4.
When I pull the plug on #4 it is sometimes wet with gas. If you put a new plug in it runs fine for a while. In fact the last time we took a several 100 mile trip with it right after plug change, and it ran great. The pulled plugs re always in good condition with no burn, oil, chips or glazing. I have been using the standard autolites that are in advance auto's computer for that engine. No issues with the other 5 so I figure they re good enough.
The day after we came back I get the call... Honey its doing it again. Often to the point of having no power at all.
But it will clear itself usually, if not a new plug for #4 will cure it immediately.
So I thought something is killing this plug.... Or flooding it. SO I ran 2 cans of sea foam though it, put in a new plug and an new wire. It fixed it for a week then it did it again.
Ok I think... maybe the coil pack is bad either killing the plug or just not firing it at all? So since the pack has never been change in its nearly 300K life (to my knowledge, shes had the truck since about 60K) What the heck.... a new coil pack for the old thing.
I have not had the chance to clean the MAF but we are talking misfire on one cylinder, every now and then with no real conditions that set it off. More often than not its a pending code that you can even hear or feel and other times its a full blown miss that drags the truck down. Well for a short while until it clears up or I replace the plug.
3 cans of seafoam surely would have cleared a sticky injector. I realize it could be a bad wire to that injector but I have not had the time to tear the fiddle bits off to get to it to clean and test it... or just replace it.
Honestly Ive had a lot of cars and trucks, I don't remember ever having to replace an injector. Ive had bad wires to them but they misbehave ALL the time. This problem is so intermittent its freaky.
She says it does it mostly when its cold or not totally warmed up. Almost always, by the time the engine is hot it goes away.
And hot for this truck is over 185F, which I think its too cold to be running and the thermostat needs changed BUT she thinks cool=good. I keep telling her no, cool is often not good, the engine needs to be up to the operating temp.... which to me means 190-200. Her ranger runs between 170-180 all the time. I doubt thats causing the problem but still.... I think new thermo is in order.
My thinking is since it runs so cool all the time, the issue might be related to a spike in the temp over 180 ish, that gods forbid is opening a crack somewhere to suck air or lose compression.
And a compression test is my next step on #4 if/when it does it again. Now I have had cracked valves before, I don't recall them acting this way. After all sometimes the thing will go 100s of miles under different driving conditions and run fine. I don't think a cracked valve would be that nice.
Shes getting @18 MPG mixed driving, when it runs t runs like a bear. It always fires right up. There is no smoke, white or black. There is no water in the oil, no oil in the water. No audible exhaust leaks. No ticks knocks or oddball noises. For its age and miles almost 300K it runs perfectly.
Well until it has its intermittent issue with the misfire, that isnt bad enough to actually set the code.
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I figured something out on my ranger that has been bugging me for a while it was a third cly misfire so I changed the plugs and it went away for a while.the po told me he had just changed the plug wires so i didn't mess with those and it was an intermittent misfire so i changed the brain box because it was 15.00 at pull and save and it had been all updated boy did it run smooth for a while then the misfire came back. So I decided to check the 3rd cylinder plug wires and found out the one that is hard to change on the drivers side was badly rusted so i borrowed one off my windstar it was a little longer but boy does it run smoother and it doesn't die all the time and chug chug all the time now i just need to change the battery. i have already changed the clutch and the tranny twice i took one out of an 88 and it fit just fine by the way the engine is a 2.3 8 plug engine with over 230,000miles on it my next project is a timing belt and a heater core won't that be fun and yes i smell the antifreeze inside and don't like the stop leak like the last person put in.
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Been awhile since I've been able to post but I've got a serious issue with my 2006 Ranger XLT 4L V6. So last night about 2 miles from home my check engine light started flashing like it was a at a rave and my engine wasn't acting right, also had the STRONG odor of raw gas, no other lights from the dash, no fluids leaking, oil was good n nothing in radiator but coolant. Was able to baby it to my current home but all my tools are in storage so had to wait to get my ODB scanner to see what's up. Scan came back as 'cylinder #3 misfire' & 'O2 sensor reading rich'.
Go cylinder #3 spark plug out and it were fouled bad. Got ride to the store and got a whole new set. Got back n got'em changed and fired ut up, idle still rough and check engine started flashing again and white cloud coming from exhaust pipe and STRONG odor of gas. Check and now have 'multiple missfire', 'cylinder #2 misfire' and 'cylinder #3 misfire'.
Shut it down go and double check ALL spark plug wires are connected and TRY to start, get about a turn n a half then starter spin. Try again and the engine won't even turn over. "Great I've seized the engine!" Was able to put a socket on the crankshaft pully and manually turn the engine over "whew didn't seize the engine", did this a couple of times and tried to start, was rough but eventually it fired up, still idling rough and again check engine light flashing, while it was running I pulled one plug wire at a time from the coilpack to see/feel the lighting and there was spark for the 3 I pulled, didn't affect engine idle.
Run codes and 'cylinder #3 misfire', so now that the engine is was warmed up I pulled out my ohm meter and started checking wire resistance. Cylinders #1, #2 were at .012, #3 was .011 and #5 was .009.
I've figured that the raw gas is due to cylinder #3 not burning and just pushing gas into the exhaust. So to the brass tacks, do I invest in a new set of wires? Or could it be the injector being stuck open and just flooding the cylinder? No when I originally pulled the #3 plug fuel did not spill out. Haven't pulled #3 again due to it being May in Arizona and had to take a break. I'm going on the assumption that the engine wouldn't start after a short run do to "hydraulic lock in cylinder #3", my manually turning the engine over cleared this and allowed the engine to start.
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I am currently chasing misfire codes that started out on cylinder 5 p0305 was the first code I replaced spark plugs and wires about 200 miles the code returned checked coil with meter it was barley in spec. I have replaced coil same code only difference was a hard start cold or hot replaced injectors now hard start is fixed but logging codes for right bank is to rich and p0300 304 305 and 306 also performed compression test on right bank and readings are 155 155 and 160...
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