Hello, new like many peeps to the Ranger forum and mostly due to issues being had with my vehicle at the moment.


I have a 2002 (made in 2001 according to the vin number) Ford Ranger XL 3.0L V6, single cab, long bed. The basic of the Rangers for that year excluding the V6 that it sports. I had bought it used post life as my father's company work vehicle and it has been a great student car. I may move on soon to a bigger and more practical vehicle but for now it's nice not having a car payment.


Anyways, I'm having problems with rough idling, low power and an oil pressure gauge that goes crazy after I've been driving at high rpm's (highway driving) for extended periods.


I'm not normally one that backs down from a challenge as I am experienced in electronics and other things like changing the oil and changing the tires (no doubt 99% of the users here do that but it's a start).


I had my vehicle checked out thoroughly over a year and a half ago at 135,000 miles and the transmission fluid was changed and look fantastic for the amount of miles it had on it. Everything else was given a clean bill of health. I have since changed the oil (the spark plugs were done 10,000 miles ago). But I have suspicions of a bad ignition coil and possible bad spark plugs but have no way of making sure unless I dig in - something I haven't attempted before.


Anyways, I'll properly post this in the tech/repair area of the forums, but if anyone knows of a user who has had these problems before then any help will be greatly appreciated. .

 

As a fellow driver of the 3.0 I'll start off by saying not to expect too much power from it. Its not there even if it is tuned up. Mine runs great but I still wish I had the 4.0OHC
My oil pressure gauge just started doing that at idle when the engine is hot. The service records that came with my truck show the last couple oil changes were done with 10w30. I put in the thinner recommended 5w20. The gauge is a dummy, does not have a full range pressure sender attached to it, just a switch. It only tells you yes or not enough pressure. My needle only flutters at low low idle speeds, add just a feather of throttle and it levels out. Next oil change I will switch back to 10w30 and I'm sure the prob will go away. it wont hurt your motor either.

 

Thanks, I've been regular with the user recommended 10w 30 as it was always put in. I'm not all that concerned with the gauge itself as I'm fairly sure that it's just an indicator of the bigger problem.


I'm not sure if the engine overheats as it appears quite cool even after running it on the highway for over a hour. The radiator fluid however (and i just noticed this moments ago) is quite low and is brown in color - does this need a flush?

 

yes probably needs a flush, but since low, need to find out why its low ( where the leak is)