Hi all,

So between a broken driveshaft and an oil leak, my ranger isn't doing so hot. Last week the check engine light came on and read as cylinder 5 misfire (sounds like a lawnmower and goes very slow up hills).

I changed all the plugs, wires, and the coilpack, and nothing changed. Except now it reads as a cylinder 4 misfire (after I cleared the first code and drove 2 miles). Any suggestions on why the misfire would change and what I should do?

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forum

What year Ranger?
Manual or automatic?

2004-2006 3.0l Ranger had a TSB for recessed valve seats, which would cause misfires becaise of lower compression

I would do a compression test, which you should do for any steady misfire first
Changing spark plugs is fine, they do wear out

Have you filled up at a different gas station recently?
Its possible to get "bad gas"(too much water in it) which will cause misfires

 

It's an 08 auto xlt 4x4. I disconnected the battery this morning and now it drives much faster up hills (one big hill that it was doing at 10mph it now does at 40). It still is rumbling and the power is not evenly distributed. The tachometer is wiggling pretty often. I don't think it's bad gas (I go to a very big station, its unlikely they have bad gas).

I'm interested that the cyclinder misfire changed from 5 to 4 and that it is driving better with new plugs and wires. I deleted the check engine code, drove 30 miles and it hasn't come back on. Is it possible the driving will improve as the truck 'relearns' everything following the battery disconnect?

 

An old technology can help, a $20 vacuum gauge can tell you alot about a running engine

Info here: https://www.gregsengine.com/using-a-vacuum-gauge.html

A partially blocked exhaust system can cause all sorts of issues, you can test for that

The 3.0l Vulcan computer relies heavily on the CAM sensor/synchro unit, these do wear out, not too hard to change, if you mark old units position and then duplicate that on the new unit, i.e. its timed to the engine

Info here: https://therangerstation.com/tech_li...n_sensor.shtml

You will have a 2 wire CAM sensor in 2008, 1999 and up used 2 wire, earlier 3 wire

The Cam sensor is how the computer tells which cylinder had the misfire, and yours changed......................wondering if maybe that would indicate a Cam sensor issue