My dad washed the engine on his 2.3 ranger and on his way home it started to sputter at takeoff only and when coming to a stop.the engine light came on but my bro had the bad idea of telling him to disconnect the battery and now it's off and the only code it reads is p1000.ive tried driving it around and it still won't cut on . At a cold start it seems fine but as soon as it warms up it gets a intermittent shake and almost cuts off but then gets better.when I drive it it doesn't pickup to speed as quick and shifts hard sometimes.maf sensor reads at 3.75 and 02 sensors short term reads around 1.56 and long term at 19.53 so that's doesn't seem right.then I checked it again today and long term went down to about 7.50 but it hadn't been on long like the last time it had been running for like 20 minutes.also the bank 1 sensor 2 has 0.82 volts but short fuel trim says n/a I'm not sure why.does anyone have an idea why the check engine light wont come back on even though it's not running good?

 

Did he use a de-greaser or some other cleaning agent ?
Did he use a pressure washer ?

I'm thinking spark plug wires are now bad.

 

No degreaser and the cables were replaced about 2yrs ago .he said he covered the plug area.

 

CEL(check engine light) should come on with key ON, and then go off when you are cranking the engine to start it

CEL often won't come on when engine is running badly, it's a computer it doesn't know engine is running badly, it only knows if sensors are not operating properly
And even then it gives it quite a bit of time before it will Set a Code and turn on CEL

Flash CEL is the only thing that happens instantly, that means bad misfire and to back off the gas pedal, and that may set a code and may not


So washing down the engine bay caused rough running
I assumed you have checked the air cleaner and its dry inside
You may want to hose it down again to see if you can clean out any minerals that are shorting out wires, water does NOT conduct electricity to cause shorts, its the MINERALS in the water that causes the shorts
So when you first washed it off all the dirt(minerals) is pushed into connections as you spray the water around, then it drys and you have shorts
Re-spraying a clean engine bay may get some of that dirt out of where it shouldn't be

 

Ok so I think I know what it is and it fixed it for like 30 minutes of running but then it did it again a hr later but it was a quick shake then it fixed again .all I did was disconnected the throttle position sensor and the sensor on top of the intake while it was on

which I don't know what it's called I'm posting a picture .can someone tell me what it is .I took it for a drive and started to do it again but not as bad runs better.im leaning toward the throttle position sensor being the 1 acting up so I'm probably going to change it .what do y'all think could that be it I'm thinking it got wet because I asked my dad and he said he used a green engine cleaner from car wash and maybe it went inside sensor. I thought he used only water but he didn't and said he wet everything except coil and plugs

 

Its a MAP(manifold pressure) sensor

Good call to unplug and plug back in connectors, that cleans the contacts inside

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