I agree with not believing customer claims. I had an over heating Land Cruiser with a “new” radiator. Talk about going down the wrong road . Turns out the bottom tank was plugged. Had an “old” new looking radiator. Keep up the good work. Love your mistakes, makes you much more human and believable. Peter, retired master Toyota tech 😊
I always keep the old parts off of jobs that I do. They come in handy. I just changed the cam and crank sensors on the 4.6l Ford. Drove it for a while and it started doing the same things that I changed them out for in the first place. Including codes. So I put the original parts back in. Fixed the problem, like forever. I'm suspecting, in hindsight, that corrosion on the contacts was the culprit. The very act of changing and scraping the contacts in the process was the actual cure. And who knows what's going on with the new parts. Yes, I inspected the parts upon removal and all of the seals were intact and nothing was leaking. Like your thoroughness in your work. I'll be watching your videos for future content!
100% agree with you on not listening to what someone has done before. It can take you down rabbit holes you don't want to go down. It prevents clear thinking which is the one thing we need to troubleshoot.
The is by far my favorite channel ive discovered in a long time thank you for stopping to explain your thought process, it's super helpful while trying to learn how to diagnose problems.
My Nissan Frontier 2001 did that and could never figure it out until I got the original timing belt replaced, reason I didnt get it replaced was because the car just hit 105k miles in 2023 and the manual calls for 105k interval change for the belt BUT down the paragraph it tells you 105k or 7 years which ever is first and its a miracle the belt didnt snap in the 22 years it was turning now its so smooth that I thought I was driving my dad’s new MINI Countryman
I’ve watched a few of your videos while I’ve been sick, and it’s always good to watch a technician working through diagnostics and doing a proper job to make sure it’s fixed. I don’t feel like a lot of people realize or understand just how tricky a proper diagnosis can be sometimes on modern machines, and just expect parts to be tossed in and magic will happen. As an Ag technician in Canada, I’ve seen more than a few projects that took longer to diagnose than to fix, and if a casual parts changer would’ve gotten their hands on such a project, I can only imagine the financial pain as the parts bill racks up.
As a dyi guy I learned long ago to, instead of going to the parts store and looking up the part and purchasing, to remove the part( water pump, fuel pump,...), take it to the part store and match it up bolt hole pattern, connector locations and attachments, general shape etc. If it didn't match exactly and the counter guy told me well that's what's in the book, I'd send him back to check the shelves and invariably he come back with the right part.
Its good to compare parts, however sometimes the part in your hand is a known issue, with a track record of early failure, and has been redesigned to correct a specific issue. As a professional, i see redesigned parts that bear little to no resemblance to the original. But install it and it works. Just bear that in mind.Sometimes looking different is a good thing.
One time long ago I changed a motor in a 84 dodge ram 4x4... Original motor was a 318. It had a bad ticking noise. Only 68,000 miles. Just bought the truck like that cheap because the previous owner was fed up. I had a known good 360, so I did the swap. Started it up and it had the exact same ticking noise. Well I went underneath and the source of the ticking, took the splash shield off from the front of the transmission. No noise HUH. It was a warped splash shield. Straightened it out and walla fixed it. Live and learn. Boy I felt dumb. But hey it wasn't my only screw up
Lol back in the day first car was a Plymouth fury 3 with a old 318 engine in it that time would would skip time just by looking at it worse engine ever made
Good old waste spark spark system Kenny. I have a 2007 Ford Ranger , has happened twice to me. If a spark plug wire opens ie, infinite resistance the spark has to try to find a way to return back to the coil. It will find a way , probably through the coil. The result is a bad coil as well as a bad spark plug wire.In these situations, replace both the coil and the spark plug wires. And you are correct, watch the coil pack replacement. some are 3 nut holddowns and others are 4.Think proper terminology is type 1 and type 2 coil pack. great video as always , Thank You for sharing.
A tip for using the Snap-on Solus tool and diaging misfires on fords: The drive cycle misfire counter is not a real time counter. What I tend to default to in this case is the cylinder contribution test. It's in the "functional tests" submenu in the engine menu. While it isn't a misfire counter, it does tell you in real time when a cylinder dies, and I tend to find it most useful. Fords that are too old to support Auto-ID on that scanner though will show the test as an option, but they aren't compatible, so the old school methods of testing for misses have to be used.
Sounds like someone used the extra large parts cannon on that one . I had been in the industry for 42 years, and you’re absolutely right. Don’t believe what you’ve been told or what somebody else has diagnosed. I would politely listen to the customer on what they had done or thought. Politely listen to a tech from another shop and what they did when they couldn’t find the problem. And even politely listened to one of my own technicians when they were out of ideas and couldn’t find the problem. Then I would say, “ I want to diagnose it myself.” If after a while I was stumped and couldn’t find the problem, I would step back take a deep breath and say, “ Ok, let’s start from the beginning again, one step at a time. I’ve missed something “. When it comes to misfires I would tell my customers and technicians that there’s three basic types. Electrical which happens abruptly like a light switch, on/off, now I’m good now I’m not. Fuel related which happens slowly like water in a garden hose. Then a constant or dead misfire which could be electrical, fuel or mechanical. 😊😊😊
Thanks for the hard and soft misfire thinking So hard to track down at times engine management boxes etc I did hear of one proved to be a signal from a front break sensor
So fascinating. Remember twa flight 800 explosion. The cause of the crash over the east coast was suspected arcing between lo and high voltage lines bundled together leading to unintended high voltage entering the fuel tank thru sensor and igniting the very hot tanks and fuel... Anyways, now I think back to hours and hours spent in the shop with my first boyfriend trying to resolve some electrical issue that he just could not figure out and I wonder to myself if something of that nature could have caused some of the really difficult and unresolved issues we often struggled with (possibly. Wiring is a nightmare anyways but sometimes it just doesn't add up!) So cool to learn from you! A good, honest mechanic, just like my first man. Bless you!
Well in airplane school you not only find the failed part, but also the reason it failed. Brother kept having his rockers broken where the push rod sits...twice. the third time it happened I discovered lash in all the rockers and simply tighten them snug to the push rod. Thought was why didn't the mechanic who serviced it didn't bother. Anyway my brother then stated the car never had so much power. Anyway, he must mean parts from Auto Zone or something.
Had one of these rangers with a persistent cyl3 misfire. New plugs, new wires, harness ✔️,injector ✔️... Finally replaced the new autolites with ngk problem solved till now
@@jaws978 YA Plugs can make a HUGE difference. I bought a 1963 charger RT with a 383 mangum. It ran good but when I decided to tune it up I found someone had put autolight plus in it and my mechanic friend told me to switch to Champion. WOW, what a difference, Certain cars need certain plugs for sure.
If you ever need to put an engine in one of those 3.0 rangers you buy a Taurus engine and remove heads and put ranger head gaskets on. Junk yard will tell you 1500 for an engine for ranger and 500 for low mile taurus. The head gasket on ranger has extra hole on them that allows coolant flow to heater core.
Man that’s nuts that a guy replaced an engine for no reason. But as soon as you said it’s missing and it had new plugs and wires i was like its the coil. I have one of these pickups and I’ve learned a lot of their quirks and the coils are common to go cause a problem
Nice work! Yes, never believe a customer or the guy who couldnt fix it, and just work with the understanding you're starting from scratch. I was sold a passat wagon a few years back that had an issue with over heating, shop the owner took it to replaced the thermostat, and still over heated, so they said its going to need a new engine (no idea where they got that from) when I was sold the car, they told me the info, but I just went in blind like normal, pulled the thermostat, it was rated 20-25 degrees higher than the operating temp of that engine, put the correct one in, fixed. My buddy is still driving as a daily to this day.
Good info on the hard hit vs soft hit, never thought about it but have experienced it many times. I have a 3800 series 1 Buick and it was doing exactly the same, random hard hits especially at idle in gear. At first thought it was a plug, they were a little old anyway. New plugs helped, got rid of a misfire while accelerating but still had a random bump at idle. Ended up being a bad coil. Had an extra in a box and swapped it in. Luckily it happened to be the first one I changed. Coils right up front, super easy fix.forgot to mention, this bad coil still worked but ohming it showed infinite resistance in the secondary. Must have been a tiny break in the wire toward the end where the spark could jump it internally.
Nobodys perfect Sir if you were close to where I lived I'd take my car to you.Alot of your shops are cheaper than the Dealerships.Its a roll of the dice if they know what they're doing.I wouldn't hesitate to take it to this Guy.You can tell he knows what he is doing.Keep posting Sir I'll keep watching
Just because its new don't mean its GOOD, probably more true now than a few years ago with so many cheep parts out there. I am a new subscriber and still welding the spanners at almost 70 years old. I enjoy your channel very much and am still picking up hints and tips from you and Eric at South Main Auto.
Good job diagnosing however, just so you are aware direct injected chevy truck motors will misfire just like a failing coil when the fuel injectors begin to fail so dont let those fool you should you ever come across one
YT sent this video my way and i thought for sure it would be my saving grace as I'm currently dealing with a 2000 explorer and a misfire. Changing between old and new coil, wires and plugs i haven't solved my issue. Got order wrong and that's when things went really bad. After getting the order back correct I've gone from an idle misfire to the vehicle trying to die when put in gear. I'm afraid of internal damage from running it with the wrong firing order
Hi, It's Mrs Wrenching! You should go on the Facebook group Wrenching with Kenny (answer all the questions) put the year, make & model of your vehicle in your post. Be sure to include what is happening with your vehicle & what you have done to fix it so far. There are a lot of techs that may be able to help. The link is toward the bottom of the video. Keep wrenching! PS also let everyone know if there is an active check engine light & what it is 🔧
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard "it's a new part" and then found it was just another used part from something somewhere. "But it's new to the car". That's what he did. It's his version of new.
The plug boot can also grow a carbon track, the Ford F-150 Eco boosts are notorious for that. Jeep wranglers can have a tiny hole burned through a plug boot that is hard to spot, sometimes watching in the dark works. Good job!
I have had a really hard mis-fire in my 1998 A6 2.8. It initially only happened at very high load (trying to accelerate up a hill, locked in top gear from 13 - 1400 rpm - I know) usually only once or twice but then got worse, similar conditions but less load and more frequent misfires. I thought it would be the coil pack, but I had an exhaust leak in the flexi between the after the 1st o2 sensor but before the cat and 2nd sensor. I stopped the leak and the misfire did not return until the other side started to blow and now is gone again. A leak there seems to upset the fuel calculations so I assume it was trying to too rich or lean.
@@dennisharvey4499 When I bought it 8 years ago I knew I was finally making the leap to digital motoring after clinging to analogue. Luckily I hit the sweet spot between - it is OBDII so the scanners work but it has no check engine light and doesn't give me any codes when it happens. Took longer to figure it out but I love that my car is like 'Whatever' and keeps rolling..
As an owner of a 98 ranger with the 3.0 and had a misfire issue, my problem was when it was changed to aftermarket wires, they were garbage. Changing to Oem ford wires solved the problem.
Just based on the shape of that coil pack I assumed it was a waste spark system with three coils. But if that is the case, why would only one cylinder be affected? Is it possible for a waste spark system to affect only one cylinder? Am I wrong, are there six coils in that coil pack?
@@WrenchingWithKenny Ah ha! I get it. There is a short to ground on the secondary side, between the coil and one of the two companion plugs. That means one plug continues working as before, and the other plug gets bypassed by the short to ground. One cylinder fails.
@@WrenchingWithKenny for example, my 6 cylinder has a single pack with three coils on it. On each coil is a primary and secondary winding. Think of the primary and secondary as a transformer, which it is. The secondary is your spark plug wire attached to the spark plug, which ignites the air fuel mixture.12 volts primary- converted to the high voltage on secondary via the transformer action of the coil pack.As@spelunkerd said, if you have no spark at tower testing with a test light, check companion cylinder. If spark on companion cylinder, you have primary control- you need a coil pack. Personally I would change the spark plug wires as well.
The numbering of the cylinders on those coil packs is important. Make sure. The OEM part has numbers printed on it. The cylinders on a Ford are sequential per side. Check the service manual or look it up online. The numbers can get cleaned off the coil pack pretty easily. Find out what you have for your build and calibration. Ford literature has been helpful in the past and they have updates if you check for that too. I've seen the new parts for tune and driveability, from an independent repair company returned to the customer and motorcraft parts made it run like brand new. Assumptions get made by people and their expectations during maintenance and home repair. Checking what's right for that build and correcting it is half the job. When those coil packs first came on the V6 distributorless, I wiped some dust off and noticed the printed on numbering sequence. I've seen a few times where cleaning the engine compartment easily washed off the indicating numbers from the coulpack.
Nice diagnosis! I once changed an engine for a friend at work just because they said it was bad. I didn’t question it. When I tried to start it, it was a crank no start. I called the guy up and got some more info, he said they tried to start it and poured some fuel in it and it backfired and then some family’s members tried to fix it. It turned out to be a bad fuel pump and it did have a few bad sensors. I’m pretty sure the engine is still good. Just wish I new the whole story before I put the new engine in.
When presented with a coil design like this an easy way to dx the coil is swap the wires to opposite sides from coil. It uses a waste spark system. So if misfire moves from 1 to 4 the dx will be complete. And if you have 2 misfiring cylinders on same contributing coil then also pretty concrete. Chrystler products and others also use this design. Hope this helps. Also, grounded test light to visualize missing spark works with wire pulled off, but may have to power brake the engine and not get run over 😆.
Just came across your channel Kenny you now have a New SUBSCRIBER!! I work in the Automotive field and have worked on cars and trucks that was Miss Diagnosed nothing new or bad New Part.Good job Kenny have a Great Day.
Hi Kenny, my thought is they put on a different coil but not new, just new to the truck. Really makes diagnosing a problem harder when they tell U what they tried. Have a good one, keep wrenching, loving it
Good job. I suspect someone did the same thing you did with a new "wrong" coil, then just put the old one back in and still claimed new coil was installed. Maybe.
I had a misfire in my 2008 Ford Ranger (2.3 L 4 cyl.). We were pretty sure it was the ignition module. I changed it with two different after market units and still had a misfire. The plugs and wires were changed within the last year, so I didn't suspect them. When I purchased an OEM module from Ford, the misfire cleared up and I have had any issues since.
Had a similar experience on an 02 ranger 2.3. misfired under load. Napa coil made it worse, coil from advance lasted a few months and the misfire returned. Finally bought a motorcraft, issue has stayed away for years now.
That's the way I am too. I think people take it wrong when I tell them that I don't want to hear what they think is wrong. I've seen vehicles with many new parts and the owner is saying why the fuel pump, the filter, and even the fuel line is new but they still get no gas. You brought it here and I'll fix it and to do that I need to check a thing or two. Turned out the shaft between the cam and the pump was wore away. The hardest to find problem I had was a simple glove box switch that had a broken mount. I knew which circuit but it powered nearly everything within the interior. I found it my second time through on my hard target search. I checked the operation of the button by hand and found that the whole switch as a unit moved. Otherwise how would you know the glove box light is still on with it shut. Shit bird I worked with spent two days working on the car in vain. The third day boss man calls over, 'Hey J, see if you can figure out what's wrong with this car'. I walk up and inspected it seeing everything under the hood is new and replaced. With that I proceeded to try a compression check. Lo and behold, the second cylinder I tested had no compression.
I'm an old-timer, and I once found the fuel pump cam lobe worn flat on a Ford pickup with a flathead V8. The cost to replace the cam was insane. I wired in a $30.00 electric pump and the customer was delighted.
On my 1990 GM 3.1 V6 I had intermittent starting issues. Sometimes if you shut it off it wouldn't start. Turns out one fuel injector had a fault. On that engine if one faults out the computer shuts down all of them. I had to tow it to a shop when it wouldn't start because that's when the code would show they said. That 3.1 was a great engine.
My Mothers '97 Taurus had a constant misfire on #5. We took it to 2 shops, the first shop couldn't figure it out and the second shop (Ford Dealer) wanted to replace the head gaskets. I finally took a look at and figured out it was a bad plug wire. When I switched the plug wire with another cylinder, the misfire went to that cylinder. $5.00 fix. By the way the engine was an FFV like this Ranger had. Aren't the coils set up in pairs and fire 2 at the same time, making the coil pack what I call a wasted fire system? I believe you could switch any 2 plug wires on a coil pair and it wouldn't make any difference?
Great job I'm new here and believe me I've seen this a time or two myself as long as I've drove my own cars always repair my self 93 ranger 300,000 miles just replaced transmission in it yep standard shift 2.3 engine
One word of advice Kenny on high performance cars I tried advance auto it never worked I had to end up buying a original Coil for my 2095 Grand Prix 3800 I enjoy your videos many I down load and listen at work .
I had this problem before, i had bought some cheap coils off ebay and installed them. They would work for a good 2,000 miles and then out of no where it would be a internment misfire. I ended of going OEM and its been fine every since
Hey I have a 2002 Buick rhinov and it has a misfire cylinder. 2 problem it was misfiring before I did the fuel injectors. Both shops that have worked on it told me it was the fuel injectors. I had a suspicion. It is the coils or the spark plugs. And I have not replaced those yet. But when I first had it worked on the spark. Plugs and wires were all brand new
I know a lady who's 2005 Ford Focus developed a "stutter" (which I eventually diagnosed as a faulty throttle position sensor). Initially she took the car to an official Ford dealership where, after putting the car on the diagnostic computer, they recommended _purchasing a new car._
I had a 2008 F150 with 6 cylinder and it had the same problem. I'm thinking there was a problem with those coils, but that's just my guess. Keep the good stuff coming.
Waste spark system diagnosis, here is a new way i figured out 20 years ago. Write the first half of the firing order, then write the second half right underneath it. Those are the complimentary cylinders. The ones that fire at the same time. To track a misfire, you can switch those 2 complimentary wires and see if the misfire stays, or follows the secondary coil. Its essentially switching coils. No haters please, i have used this method for 20+ years. Its proven. A waste spark system has 1 primary coil, with 2 wound secondary outputs.
Those coils are notorious for being bad right from the box. My 99 Explorer takes the same coil. Three coils later I finally got one that worked correctly. The original coil was doing pretty much what your faulty one was. Sporadic misfire, sometimes lasting a few seconds, other times lasting much longer.
Great job, I noticed your ear was tool on this job. I have a 97 Ranger 3.0V6 and that random tick was the same deal it was misfiring. But the coil was fine the hood above in the closed position would bounce a spark I replaced the wires and put a plastic shield over THE "AFTERMARKET NON FUNCTIONAL HOOD SCOOP" everything works fine!
Man, this story sounds like Dejavoo! I have in the past been handed a automobile 2 times. One was my specialty a VW beatle with the valves tightened so much I was shocked it ran at all. And the pro did on two engines! And funny this the second was a old fashioned coil.
I'm a chevy guy but I got a mud truck ranger with a 3.0. That is a tough motor. It's seen more Rev limiter than idle. Wish company's made stuff like they used it
You say you don't want to know what's been done, but that information can provide Context. Knowing that the customer swapped a coil could mean they got a bad one, the wrong one, or screwed up something in the vicinity while changing it. The recent video about the crew cab pickup that Kenny bought was a prime example of when the information from the customer can provide the crucial bit of information that solves the issue. The Camshaft Position Sensor Interrupter gear was dented and knowing the engine was swapped was a clue, but knowing the Valve Covers were off when it arrived from the salvage yard was the key bit of Context needed to solve the problem.
I'm not a certified mechanic although I have been working on cars my whole life one thing I have learned is you can't believe everything people tell you about their car. I have heard it all and the best thing you can do is just take it from the beginning
A fish bite miss under load is usually ignition. You can also watch the 02s when the misfire occurs, if it indicates rich it is typically ignition, lean is typically fuel. Gives a good direction.
ran into something similar with a older chevy cavalier. was my bosses mom's. luckily i was the only one who worked on it for many years. anyways, we had a newer hire in the shop who got a turn on it, came in for misfires. he replaced the coil pack with aftermarket and it got no better. he spent a few hours on it and tossed his hands in the air saying the engines gotta be shot. i knew that didn't sound right, especially since i had just overhauled the motor a year prior, went to the nearby scrap yard and ripped out a used oem coil pack and it purred like a kitten.
I saw a guy throw an MAF, full tune up, intake gaskets on an F150 with this style coil. I put the scope on it, and the waveform showed that every now and then, the #5 circuit of the coil would drop out.
I agree with not believing customer claims.
I had an over heating Land Cruiser with a “new” radiator.
Talk about going down the wrong road .
Turns out the bottom tank was plugged. Had an “old”
new looking radiator.
Keep up the good work.
Love your mistakes, makes you much more human and believable.
Peter, retired master Toyota tech 😊
I always keep the old parts off of jobs that I do. They come in handy. I just changed the cam and crank sensors on the 4.6l Ford. Drove it for a while and it started doing the same things that I changed them out for in the first place. Including codes. So I put the original parts back in. Fixed the problem, like forever. I'm suspecting, in hindsight, that corrosion on the contacts was the culprit. The very act of changing and scraping the contacts in the process was the actual cure. And who knows what's going on with the new parts. Yes, I inspected the parts upon removal and all of the seals were intact and nothing was leaking. Like your thoroughness in your work. I'll be watching your videos for future content!
It's great watching skilled honest people doing their trades
Amen!
Yes good ole plain men doing what they like doing no Drama no murders no stealing just good mostly honest men doing there thing got to Love It
I guess after changing the wngine, the next logical step would be to change the Ford Ranger.
100% agree with you on not listening to what someone has done before. It can take you down rabbit holes you don't want to go down. It prevents clear thinking which is the one thing we need to troubleshoot.
The is by far my favorite channel ive discovered in a long time thank you for stopping to explain your thought process, it's super helpful while trying to learn how to diagnose problems.
Thanks for watching 🔧
My Nissan Frontier 2001 did that and could never figure it out until I got the original timing belt replaced, reason I didnt get it replaced was because the car just hit 105k miles in 2023 and the manual calls for 105k interval change for the belt BUT down the paragraph it tells you 105k or 7 years which ever is first and its a miracle the belt didnt snap in the 22 years it was turning now its so smooth that I thought I was driving my dad’s new MINI Countryman
"If that is the worst thing that happens today, it's not a bad day." What a quote! I may be using that in the future. A lot!
Another good video and I walked away knowing more about troubleshooting misfiring engines!
Once again, thanks for the lesson, and the ride along!
Appreciate your clean language sir. Shows quality.
I’ve watched a few of your videos while I’ve been sick, and it’s always good to watch a technician working through diagnostics and doing a proper job to make sure it’s fixed. I don’t feel like a lot of people realize or understand just how tricky a proper diagnosis can be sometimes on modern machines, and just expect parts to be tossed in and magic will happen. As an Ag technician in Canada, I’ve seen more than a few projects that took longer to diagnose than to fix, and if a casual parts changer would’ve gotten their hands on such a project, I can only imagine the financial pain as the parts bill racks up.
As a dyi guy I learned long ago to, instead of going to the parts store and looking up the part and purchasing, to remove the part( water pump, fuel pump,...), take it to the part store and match it up bolt hole pattern, connector locations and attachments, general shape etc. If it didn't match exactly and the counter guy told me well that's what's in the book, I'd send him back to check the shelves and invariably he come back with the right part.
Its good to compare parts, however sometimes the part in your hand is a known issue, with a track record of early failure, and has been redesigned to correct a specific issue. As a professional, i see redesigned parts that bear little to no resemblance to the original. But install it and it works. Just bear that in mind.Sometimes looking different is a good thing.
Beautiful verbal explanation of different symptom ignition vs fuel injection..
Great information on recognizing a ignition to fuel event.
One time long ago I changed a motor in a 84 dodge ram 4x4... Original motor was a 318. It had a bad ticking noise. Only 68,000 miles. Just bought the truck like that cheap because the previous owner was fed up. I had a known good 360, so I did the swap. Started it up and it had the exact same ticking noise. Well I went underneath and the source of the ticking, took the splash shield off from the front of the transmission. No noise HUH. It was a warped splash shield. Straightened it out and walla fixed it. Live and learn. Boy I felt dumb. But hey it wasn't my only screw up
Lol back in the day first car was a Plymouth fury 3 with a old 318 engine in it that time would would skip time just by looking at it worse engine ever made
Good old waste spark spark system Kenny. I have a 2007 Ford Ranger , has happened twice to me. If a spark plug wire opens ie, infinite resistance the spark has to try to find a way to return back to the coil. It will find a way , probably through the coil. The result is a bad coil as well as a bad spark plug wire.In these situations, replace both the coil and the spark plug wires. And you are correct, watch the coil pack replacement. some are 3 nut holddowns and others are 4.Think proper terminology is type 1 and type 2 coil pack. great video as always , Thank You for sharing.
A tip for using the Snap-on Solus tool and diaging misfires on fords: The drive cycle misfire counter is not a real time counter. What I tend to default to in this case is the cylinder contribution test. It's in the "functional tests" submenu in the engine menu. While it isn't a misfire counter, it does tell you in real time when a cylinder dies, and I tend to find it most useful. Fords that are too old to support Auto-ID on that scanner though will show the test as an option, but they aren't compatible, so the old school methods of testing for misses have to be used.
Mode 6 TID 53 will give you cumulative missfire information as well.
But, Why no check engine light?
@@tonywestvirginia because Ford was real casual about it.
@@jamesgeorge4874 c. C
Sounds like someone used the extra large parts cannon on that one . I had been in the industry for 42 years, and you’re absolutely right. Don’t believe what you’ve been told or what somebody else has diagnosed. I would politely listen to the customer on what they had done or thought. Politely listen to a tech from another shop and what they did when they couldn’t find the problem. And even politely listened to one of my own technicians when they were out of ideas and couldn’t find the problem. Then I would say, “ I want to diagnose it myself.” If after a while I was stumped and couldn’t find the problem, I would step back take a deep breath and say, “ Ok, let’s start from the beginning again, one step at a time. I’ve missed something “. When it comes to misfires I would tell my customers and technicians that there’s three basic types. Electrical which happens abruptly like a light switch, on/off, now I’m good now I’m not. Fuel related which happens slowly like water in a garden hose. Then a constant or dead misfire which could be electrical, fuel or mechanical. 😊😊😊
Great video Kenny.
This is one of the best misfire diags i have ever seen! I learned new ways to look at things on this video! Thanks!
Thanks for the hard and soft misfire thinking So hard to track down at times engine management boxes etc I did hear of one proved to be a signal from a front break sensor
So fascinating. Remember twa flight 800 explosion. The cause of the crash over the east coast was suspected arcing between lo and high voltage lines bundled together leading to unintended high voltage entering the fuel tank thru sensor and igniting the very hot tanks and fuel...
Anyways, now I think back to hours and hours spent in the shop with my first boyfriend trying to resolve some electrical issue that he just could not figure out and I wonder to myself if something of that nature could have caused some of the really difficult and unresolved issues we often struggled with (possibly. Wiring is a nightmare anyways but sometimes it just doesn't add up!)
So cool to learn from you! A good, honest mechanic, just like my first man. Bless you!
Also remember, new parts can fail too. Just because someone put a new part on doesn't mean it hadn't failed.
Twice is too much.
Well in airplane school you not only find the failed part, but also the reason it failed. Brother kept having his rockers broken where the push rod sits...twice. the third time it happened I discovered lash in all the rockers and simply tighten them snug to the push rod. Thought was why didn't the mechanic who serviced it didn't bother. Anyway my brother then stated the car never had so much power. Anyway, he must mean parts from Auto Zone or something.
@@brahtrumpwonbigly7309 diagnosedan (who is going to pay for this ?) have a look
Had one of these rangers with a persistent cyl3 misfire. New plugs, new wires, harness ✔️,injector ✔️...
Finally replaced the new autolites with ngk problem solved till now
@@jaws978 YA Plugs can make a HUGE difference. I bought a 1963 charger RT with a 383 mangum. It ran good but when I decided to tune it up I found someone had put autolight plus in it and my mechanic friend told me to switch to Champion. WOW, what a difference, Certain cars need certain plugs for sure.
Kenny, Great Job, I did the same for OMC Johnson/ Evinrude 25 Years ago, I enjoyed my job, doing the Same in Outboards your approach is great! Tom W
If you ever need to put an engine in one of those 3.0 rangers you buy a Taurus engine and remove heads and put ranger head gaskets on. Junk yard will tell you 1500 for an engine for ranger and 500 for low mile taurus. The head gasket on ranger has extra hole on them that allows coolant flow to heater core.
Man that’s nuts that a guy replaced an engine for no reason. But as soon as you said it’s missing and it had new plugs and wires i was like its the coil. I have one of these pickups and I’ve learned a lot of their quirks and the coils are common to go cause a problem
Yep. As a coil heats up it will usually misfire more often.
you called it and sent it right on .
Great, real-world video. Thanks.
Nice work! Yes, never believe a customer or the guy who couldnt fix it, and just work with the understanding you're starting from scratch. I was sold a passat wagon a few years back that had an issue with over heating, shop the owner took it to replaced the thermostat, and still over heated, so they said its going to need a new engine (no idea where they got that from) when I was sold the car, they told me the info, but I just went in blind like normal, pulled the thermostat, it was rated 20-25 degrees higher than the operating temp of that engine, put the correct one in, fixed. My buddy is still driving as a daily to this day.
Good info on the hard hit vs soft hit, never thought about it but have experienced it many times. I have a 3800 series 1 Buick and it was doing exactly the same, random hard hits especially at idle in gear. At first thought it was a plug, they were a little old anyway. New plugs helped, got rid of a misfire while accelerating but still had a random bump at idle. Ended up being a bad coil. Had an extra in a box and swapped it in. Luckily it happened to be the first one I changed. Coils right up front, super easy fix.forgot to mention, this bad coil still worked but ohming it showed infinite resistance in the secondary. Must have been a tiny break in the wire toward the end where the spark could jump it internally.
Nobodys perfect Sir if you were close to where I lived I'd take my car to you.Alot of your shops are cheaper than the Dealerships.Its a roll of the dice if they know what they're doing.I wouldn't hesitate to take it to this Guy.You can tell he knows what he is doing.Keep posting Sir I'll keep watching
Firing order and spark plug wire order is the same on both coils. It's the coil plug wiring that's different. Gotta love engineers!
I've heard the hard miss Kenny was describing called a fish bite miss and as mentioned usually it's an ignition problem.
Just because its new don't mean its GOOD, probably more true now than a few years ago with so many cheep parts out there. I am a new subscriber and still welding the spanners at almost 70 years old. I enjoy your channel very much and am still picking up hints and tips from you and Eric at South Main Auto.
Yeah, DOA is a real issue for me these days.
New=
Never
Ever
Works
Good job diagnosing however, just so you are aware direct injected chevy truck motors will misfire just like a failing coil when the fuel injectors begin to fail so dont let those fool you should you ever come across one
YT sent this video my way and i thought for sure it would be my saving grace as I'm currently dealing with a 2000 explorer and a misfire. Changing between old and new coil, wires and plugs i haven't solved my issue. Got order wrong and that's when things went really bad. After getting the order back correct I've gone from an idle misfire to the vehicle trying to die when put in gear. I'm afraid of internal damage from running it with the wrong firing order
Hi, It's Mrs Wrenching! You should go on the Facebook group Wrenching with Kenny (answer all the questions) put the year, make & model of your vehicle in your post. Be sure to include what is happening with your vehicle & what you have done to fix it so far. There are a lot of techs that may be able to help. The link is toward the bottom of the video. Keep wrenching!
PS also let everyone know if there is an active check engine light & what it is 🔧
@@WrenchingWithKenny Thank you. I'll look it up
Awesome channel. Very enjoyable and informative..
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard "it's a new part" and then found it was just another used part from something somewhere. "But it's new to the car". That's what he did. It's his version of new.
Good stuff you do a great job on giving your explanations you would b a great teacher for the kids wanting to learn mechanics 👍👍
Nice job Kenny 👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍
The plug boot can also grow a carbon track, the Ford F-150 Eco boosts are notorious for that. Jeep wranglers can have a tiny hole burned through a plug boot that is hard to spot, sometimes watching in the dark works. Good job!
First time nice fix.
I have had a really hard mis-fire in my 1998 A6 2.8. It initially only happened at very high load (trying to accelerate up a hill, locked in top gear from 13 - 1400 rpm - I know) usually only once or twice but then got worse, similar conditions but less load and more frequent misfires. I thought it would be the coil pack, but I had an exhaust leak in the flexi between the after the 1st o2 sensor but before the cat and 2nd sensor. I stopped the leak and the misfire did not return until the other side started to blow and now is gone again. A leak there seems to upset the fuel calculations so I assume it was trying to too rich or lean.
Yeah, when I get an oxygen sensor slow response error, I now know it is a hole in the exhaust.
@@dennisharvey4499 When I bought it 8 years ago I knew I was finally making the leap to digital motoring after clinging to analogue. Luckily I hit the sweet spot between - it is OBDII so the scanners work but it has no check engine light and doesn't give me any codes when it happens. Took longer to figure it out but I love that my car is like 'Whatever' and keeps rolling..
As an owner of a 98 ranger with the 3.0 and had a misfire issue, my problem was when it was changed to aftermarket wires, they were garbage. Changing to Oem ford wires solved the problem.
Sweet diagnose..
Where do pool cleaning companies keep finding these trucks?
Just based on the shape of that coil pack I assumed it was a waste spark system with three coils. But if that is the case, why would only one cylinder be affected? Is it possible for a waste spark system to affect only one cylinder? Am I wrong, are there six coils in that coil pack?
It is a waste spark system . I've had several waste spark coils in the past loose one leg only . Not sure why though
@@WrenchingWithKenny Ah ha! I get it. There is a short to ground on the secondary side, between the coil and one of the two companion plugs. That means one plug continues working as before, and the other plug gets bypassed by the short to ground. One cylinder fails.
@@WrenchingWithKenny for example, my 6 cylinder has a single pack with three coils on it. On each coil is a primary and secondary winding. Think of the primary and secondary as a transformer, which it is. The secondary is your spark plug wire attached to the spark plug, which ignites the air fuel mixture.12 volts primary- converted to the high voltage on secondary via the transformer action of the coil pack.As@spelunkerd said, if you have no spark at tower testing with a test light, check companion cylinder. If spark on companion cylinder, you have primary control- you need a coil pack. Personally I would change the spark plug wires as well.
The numbering of the cylinders on those coil packs is important.
Make sure.
The OEM part has numbers printed on it.
The cylinders on a Ford are sequential per side.
Check the service manual or look it up online.
The numbers can get cleaned off the coil pack pretty easily.
Find out what you have for your build and calibration.
Ford literature has been helpful in the past and they have updates if you check for that too.
I've seen the new parts for tune and driveability, from an independent repair company returned to the customer and motorcraft parts made it run like brand new.
Assumptions get made by people and their expectations during maintenance and home repair.
Checking what's right for that build and correcting it is half the job.
When those coil packs first came on the V6 distributorless, I wiped some dust off and noticed the printed on numbering sequence.
I've seen a few times where cleaning the engine compartment easily washed off the indicating numbers from the coulpack.
Nice diagnosis! I once changed an engine for a friend at work just because they said it was bad. I didn’t question it. When I tried to start it, it was a crank no start. I called the guy up and got some more info, he said they tried to start it and poured some fuel in it and it backfired and then some family’s members tried to fix it. It turned out to be a bad fuel pump and it did have a few bad sensors. I’m pretty sure the engine is still good. Just wish I new the whole story before I put the new engine in.
Nothing like experience!
Aircraft Quality troubleshooting approach to basic automotive issues . LOL . Another good informative video .😎
I had problems on a Windstar with constant misfires! Wound up being cracks in the intake! 3.8L V6 was a plastic intake!
When presented with a coil design like this an easy way to dx the coil is swap the wires to opposite sides from coil. It uses a waste spark system. So if misfire moves from 1 to 4 the dx will be complete. And if you have 2 misfiring cylinders on same contributing coil then also pretty concrete. Chrystler products and others also use this design. Hope this helps. Also, grounded test light to visualize missing spark works with wire pulled off, but may have to power brake the engine and not get run over 😆.
Great video! I Learn something everytime!
“Got the wrong part. What are you gonna do”
Story of my life! 😂😂😂😂
Just came across your channel Kenny you now have a New SUBSCRIBER!! I work in the Automotive field and have worked on cars and trucks that was Miss Diagnosed nothing new or bad New Part.Good job Kenny have a Great Day.
Hi Kenny, my thought is they put on a different coil but not new, just new to the truck. Really makes diagnosing a problem harder when they tell U what they tried. Have a good one, keep wrenching, loving it
Good job. I suspect someone did the same thing you did with a new "wrong" coil, then just put the old one back in and still claimed new coil was installed. Maybe.
I had 7 dead a/c compressors out of the box, right in a row on a Honda van. After 4 the boss thought I was nuts. Stay safe and be blessed
I had a misfire in my 2008 Ford Ranger (2.3 L 4 cyl.). We were pretty sure it was the ignition module. I changed it with two different after market units and still had a misfire. The plugs and wires were changed within the last year, so I didn't suspect them. When I purchased an OEM module from Ford, the misfire cleared up and I have had any issues since.
Had a similar experience on an 02 ranger 2.3. misfired under load. Napa coil made it worse, coil from advance lasted a few months and the misfire returned. Finally bought a motorcraft, issue has stayed away for years now.
Great video as always
That's the way I am too. I think people take it wrong when I tell them that I don't want to hear what they think is wrong. I've seen vehicles with many new parts and the owner is saying why the fuel pump, the filter, and even the fuel line is new but they still get no gas. You brought it here and I'll fix it and to do that I need to check a thing or two. Turned out the shaft between the cam and the pump was wore away. The hardest to find problem I had was a simple glove box switch that had a broken mount. I knew which circuit but it powered nearly everything within the interior. I found it my second time through on my hard target search. I checked the operation of the button by hand and found that the whole switch as a unit moved. Otherwise how would you know the glove box light is still on with it shut. Shit bird I worked with spent two days working on the car in vain. The third day boss man calls over, 'Hey J, see if you can figure out what's wrong with this car'. I walk up and inspected it seeing everything under the hood is new and replaced. With that I proceeded to try a compression check. Lo and behold, the second cylinder I tested had no compression.
I'm an old-timer, and I once found the fuel pump cam lobe worn flat on a Ford pickup with a flathead V8. The cost to replace the cam was insane. I wired in a $30.00 electric pump and the customer was delighted.
On my 1990 GM 3.1 V6 I had intermittent starting issues. Sometimes if you shut it off it wouldn't start. Turns out one fuel injector had a fault. On that engine if one faults out the computer shuts down all of them. I had to tow it to a shop when it wouldn't start because that's when the code would show they said. That 3.1 was a great engine.
Perfect advice! go off the complaint that's how I work and I'm just a diy person,, atleast they put a good motor in, nice video!
They probably did put the coil, timing will mess up ,chain timing belt sprocket, mess up the coil in a month or 2
Could you do a review/comparison video with the snapon solus, and that new launch you got? Great show sir.
Thank you. It isn't apples to apples, but im working on a comparison video. Keep Wrenching
My Mothers '97 Taurus had a constant misfire on #5. We took it to 2 shops, the first shop couldn't figure it out and the second shop (Ford Dealer) wanted to replace the head gaskets. I finally took a look at and figured out it was a bad plug wire. When I switched the plug wire with another cylinder, the misfire went to that cylinder. $5.00 fix. By the way the engine was an FFV like this Ranger had. Aren't the coils set up in pairs and fire 2 at the same time, making the coil pack what I call a wasted fire system? I believe you could switch any 2 plug wires on a coil pair and it wouldn't make any difference?
Great job I'm new here and believe me I've seen this a time or two myself as long as I've drove my own cars always repair my self 93 ranger 300,000 miles just replaced transmission in it yep standard shift 2.3 engine
I once changed my roofing shingles because I had a leaking pipe
Hahahaha😆
Hell 40 years ago I bought a new house because I had a Bad Wife.
@@williamtaylor628 Probably had to cuz the bad wife took the old one!
Did it fix you pipe?
Right changed my oven cause my wife said she could cook!
One word of advice Kenny on high performance cars I tried advance auto it never worked I had to end up buying a original Coil for my 2095 Grand Prix 3800 I enjoy your videos many I down load and listen at work .
I had this problem before, i had bought some cheap coils off ebay and installed them. They would work for a good 2,000 miles and then out of no where it would be a internment misfire. I ended of going OEM and its been fine every since
Hey I have a 2002 Buick rhinov and it has a misfire cylinder. 2 problem it was misfiring before I did the fuel injectors. Both shops that have worked on it told me it was the fuel injectors. I had a suspicion. It is the coils or the spark plugs. And I have not replaced those yet. But when I first had it worked on the spark. Plugs and wires were all brand new
I know a lady who's 2005 Ford Focus developed a "stutter" (which I eventually diagnosed as a faulty throttle position sensor). Initially she took the car to an official Ford dealership where, after putting the car on the diagnostic computer, they recommended _purchasing a new car._
I had a 2008 F150 with 6 cylinder and it had the same problem. I'm thinking there was a problem with those coils, but that's just my guess. Keep the good stuff coming.
Waste spark system diagnosis, here is a new way i figured out 20 years ago. Write the first half of the firing order, then write the second half right underneath it. Those are the complimentary cylinders. The ones that fire at the same time. To track a misfire, you can switch those 2 complimentary wires and see if the misfire stays, or follows the secondary coil. Its essentially switching coils. No haters please, i have used this method for 20+ years. Its proven. A waste spark system has 1 primary coil, with 2 wound secondary outputs.
Here in Memphis this is a norm. The slightest problem that may take a few minutes to diagnose they say it needs an engine
Great Fix!
Those coils are notorious for being bad right from the box. My 99 Explorer takes the same coil. Three coils later I finally got one that worked correctly. The original coil was doing pretty much what your faulty one was. Sporadic misfire, sometimes lasting a few seconds, other times lasting much longer.
Your a badass mechanic 🥰 👍
Wow, that’s a big parts cannon!
Good old Ford 19xx ½, 20xx ½. I had an 89½ OJ Simpson Bronco that ALWAYS needed "the other part".
Great job, I noticed your ear was tool on this job. I have a 97 Ranger 3.0V6 and that random tick was the same deal it was misfiring. But the coil was fine the hood above in the closed position would bounce a spark I replaced the wires and put a plastic shield over THE "AFTERMARKET NON FUNCTIONAL HOOD SCOOP" everything works fine!
The good ol fish bite misfire
Great diagnosis
Kool, very good VIDEO. nice to know
Man, this story sounds like Dejavoo! I have in the past been handed a automobile 2 times. One was my specialty a VW beatle with the valves tightened so much I was shocked it ran at all. And the pro did on two engines! And funny this the second was a old fashioned coil.
we need a good mechanic like you here in illinois.
I'm a chevy guy but I got a mud truck ranger with a 3.0. That is a tough motor. It's seen more Rev limiter than idle. Wish company's made stuff like they used it
You say you don't want to know what's been done, but that information can provide Context. Knowing that the customer swapped a coil could mean they got a bad one, the wrong one, or screwed up something in the vicinity while changing it.
The recent video about the crew cab pickup that Kenny bought was a prime example of when the information from the customer can provide the crucial bit of information that solves the issue. The Camshaft Position Sensor Interrupter gear was dented and knowing the engine was swapped was a clue, but knowing the Valve Covers were off when it arrived from the salvage yard was the key bit of Context needed to solve the problem.
In that case he was able to see the logbook history & make sense of it, half the stuff from a customer's mouth is probably nonsense
I like wat u do n how u do it. If only i had a guy like u near me..
I got a bad coil from Az , Av, and Or- parts all made in CH**A. SO I bought one from a Ford dealers and solved the problem.
Cool video very informative 👍😊
I'm not a certified mechanic although I have been working on cars my whole life one thing I have learned is you can't believe everything people tell you about their car. I have heard it all and the best thing you can do is just take it from the beginning
A fish bite miss under load is usually ignition.
You can also watch the 02s when the misfire occurs, if it indicates rich it is typically ignition, lean is typically fuel. Gives a good direction.
Good video love them!
ran into something similar with a older chevy cavalier. was my bosses mom's. luckily i was the only one who worked on it for many years. anyways, we had a newer hire in the shop who got a turn on it, came in for misfires. he replaced the coil pack with aftermarket and it got no better. he spent a few hours on it and tossed his hands in the air saying the engines gotta be shot. i knew that didn't sound right, especially since i had just overhauled the motor a year prior, went to the nearby scrap yard and ripped out a used oem coil pack and it purred like a kitten.
Thanks for the very useful info and vid! And what name/model are your glasses please! Thanks.
I saw a guy throw an MAF, full tune up, intake gaskets on an F150 with this style coil. I put the scope on it, and the waveform showed that every now and then, the #5 circuit of the coil would drop out.