Today I finally found out where my interior leak was coming from, Just renewed my tags. Was having a decent day and it happend..

I was going down the interstate doing 70mph but the truck seemed a little sluggish, I noticed when I'd hit the gas peddle I would hear a whinning noise and then it started shaking and stuttering. When I would then hit the gas, the engine started to die.

When I finally got it pulled over to the shoulder it died. Everytime I tried to re-start it it would shake, stutter, and pop then die. When I tried to hit the gas peddle it died. I had it towed home and tried to start it again and the same thing happend only it's been dying faster.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what this can be ? Truck hasn't shown any problems whatsoever in over a year and definatly hasn't shown any recently.

 

Vacuum leak? Throttle body problem? I guessing on one of those two, but I'm sure others will chime in.

 

You can check the fuel cutoff. Under the dash on the passenger side. It's a box with a switch on top. Hit the switch and see if it helps.

 

It may be that too. That thing can get set off if it's kicked by a passenger.

 

^ I was kicking my friends cut off for a while. Needless to say it annoyed him quite a bit, but I would get a laugh quietly to myself. I don't do it anymore though, unless by accident.....or is it?

And the first thing I thought of when I read your post was cut off switch too.

 

u could have a plugged catalytic converter thus pingin try pulling ur o2 sensor out or removing cat if possible.....free thing to do will be doing it myself tommorrow as old mechanic at work thought that was my problem

 

^^ was thinkin the same thing about the cat

 

will post thread tommorrow after i am done......gonna do it before draft of course.....hopefully the chiefs will choose right seein as how they gave up best player....anywho will post thread under cat work

 

That woudl **** me off, haha

 

i would say check the cat, the only problem is, i think your tuck might be too new for that to be messed up, plus you only have 80K. but it could be what wrong. i wouldnt say its a vac leak cuz it atleast start up for a lil bit and then die. do you have any are you throwing codes??

if anything id say check the cat first, but i dont think thats yours problem

 

It starts and dies, after it starts, I'll push the gas peddle to the floor, it'll rev up to 3,000 rpms then go back to zero, will rev up to 3,000 again then die.

I'm not showing any lights until after it dies, I'm not a mechanical person, are these things expensive to fix ?

edit: I don't know about a switch but I did hit the fuel reset button thing on the passengers side and it did little if anything to help. I did smell alot of gas in the exhaust today while i was trying to start it.

While it was new and under warranty, I had to have the fuel pump replaced twice... could this be the problem again ?

 

Have you ever replaced the fuel filter?? It might be clogged.

 

I had it towed to a mechanic today, the mechanic said that Ford gave me a key that was either a valet key or it was defective and what had happend is that over time, continued usage of the key eventually led to the security system to lock down, thus making it die everytime I try to start it.

It had to then be towed to a Ford Dealership and will likley now cost me a TON. They said that they have to re-program the security system and get me new keys.

Does anyone know how much something like that usually costs ?

I'll tell you, I'm at the end of my rope with Ford. Every Ford I've ever owned has turned out to be total crap.

 

Ford will rape you, but they should give you a price before they fix anything...

If it IS the key.. i would go get one made.. and i think there is a "how to" on how to reporgram your key...

Rocky

 

I wouldn't even know where to begin, It's a BASIC, basic ranger, power nothing. Didn't come with the little lock popper/alarm keychain thingy..

I took a 99 Cougar to Mercury to fix the electrical system after Firestone screwed it up ( I won't go into that ) but for Mercury to fix one censor on the car ( which is what it turned out to be ) it cost nearly $800, Firestone paid for it because it was their faults, but damn... Slowly they're turning me into an import man...

Thanks for the reply.

 

yea, if it is the key, which is really weird, get one made, and look how to reprogram it yourself, just google it, im sure you'll find something. if i remember correctly, its really easy, i just dont remember how to do it. i think it involves a master key and then the new key, but you can make a master key or something like that.

ford only gave you one key when you got the truck, they usually give 2.

 

No... I got two keys, then just didn't tell me there was a diffrence and both looked exactly the same.

 

Go ahead and throw the key thery out the window...the PATS system will only affect the veh when trying to start...not while running...

sounds like an IAC problem...the veh will stay running with your foot on the gas only right ?

 

I got it back from Town and Country Ford last week ( only took them a week to look at it, go figure ) Anyways, The repair shop it went to first said it was a PATS problem and only Ford could fix it.

Had it towed ( for the 3rd time ) to Ford and after about 3-4 days they finally told me that it wasn't the PATS that it was a bad Co2 censor and surprise, surprise, Just like my Cougar, the dealer charged me around $800 to fix it.

It's fixed for now but I feel it's only a matter of time before something else goes wrong with it.