Hey guys, I thought this might be something you all should be aware of.
Sunday, I drove to work and noticed my truck was being a little sluggish in acceleration, but didnt think anything of it. When I went to lunch about 4 hours later, I had a CEL pop up. Drove home, and noticed a wistle comming from the engine compartment under accelteration. So, when I got home, I noticed something smelled like it was burning. Popped open the hood and, holy $%@&!, there was a little black smoke comming off the drivers side exhaust manifold.
The stinking DPFE sensor had melted on the REF side, all the way through the plastic housing, and was dripping plastic down onto the exhaust manifold. I took the sensor to for, and the tech there said that he's seen it before, but it's not all that common.

Just a heads up for you guys. If you pop a P1400 or a P1401 code on a CEL, check your sensor to make sure it hasnt fried like mine.

 

yeah ive heard of quite a few pop here on the boards.

sucks man.

 

wander if it was that when my brake were going bad the truck is slugish and it whistle on accel and get hot quickly I'm prolly about to get a new water pump so ill check it out...

 

I had the o2 sensor melt on my 2001 ranger ext cab 4.0 motor on the drivers side too, was unable to drive do to it causing a short I cut and taped the wires and was able to continue driving it. Thw amount of heat coming out of where o2 senor attaches at is insane tho 😳 😐... took it by my buddy and he had same thing happen on his that he replaced sensor and the new one melted too. Ended up just removing catalytic converter and putting in pipe. The cage was clogged and that's what typically causes this in the rangers... I only paid 300$ for my ranger runs and drives great 4x4 works and blows ice cold ac. Holly cap tho these trucks ride like a 1ton I hit a bump and it feels like I ran over a curb.

 

Fairly common for the DPFESensor\RiserHoses to overheat\fail\melt\leak.
Good idea to put an eyeball on this item during routine 5kMile\6Mth maintenance.
& occasionally spray a little CarbCleaner down the RiserTubes to keep the DifferentialPressureOrifice clear.
Click here for more info on the DPFESensor for the V6~4.0L~SOHC.

 

Just spotted this thread whilst searching exhaust heat shielding info.

A Ford mechanic pal gestured to my DPFE and said, "Those go out too". Should I have a replacement standing by for my 18 year old one?
Shoot the carb cleaner down the disconnected tubes on the DPFE, yes? Should I give them a run-through with thick, long pipe cleaner?

Ha, it's Spring and I just replaced my sway bar links. The truck juices are flowing.