I have a Ford Ranger 3.0L FFV engine that has a tendency towards pinging when I use 87 octane gas. When I use premium it completely goes away. Some very helpful people in this forum brought TSB 00-24-08 to my attention, which discusses that changing the coil and PCM unit is helpful in correcting this problem. My question is whether or not Ford might cover this under warranty. I am not the original owner and my truck has 50,000 miles on it. I was just wondering if there might be an emissions obligation by Ford to fix this problem since it is a known issue with a TSB attached to it. Tomorrow I will talk to my local dealer about it but I thought I would get some feedback to see what you all thought before I do…

 

It wouldn't hurt to talk with your Ford dealer. Is that where you bought the vehicle? If so, (and you're a good customer) you may get an after warranty adjustment on the service. A TSB is short for Technical Service Bulletin. It describes the problem, and the necessary steps (known at the time of publication) to correct the problem. It DOES NOT mean that you get the repair for free or at a discounted rate, UNLESS your vehicle is still in the warranty time/mileage period (either 3yr/36K or any extended warranty). If you read the "emission" warranty, you'll soon discover that very few parts of the emissons system are acually covered by the longer warranty (8yr/80K ??) period.

As I said earlier, it can't hurt to talk with your dealer. You very well may be pleasantly surprised.

 

If you read the 8/80 warranty the coil is not covered but the PCM is.

 

Thanks for all your input guys. Unfortunately, I did not buy the truck there although I have given them a lot of business since I have had it (i.e. new tires, keys made, tune-up parts, etc.). I was hoping that there might be some kind of a "Ford" warranty in general even though I did not buy the truck from this dealer. I will stop there sometime next week just to be sure. The worst that can happen is that they can say "no". It is good to know that the PCM is covered in the warranty however. I'll let you know what happens... Maybe there is hope...

 

I finally got around to dropping by the Ford dealer with TSB in hand. I am kind of a wimp when it comes to checking into this kind of stuff but I was pleasantly surprised. The person at the front counter said that she believed that the PCM would be covered by the emissions warranty but had to check with someone first to tell me for sure. She took down my name and number and will be calling me back later. I will keep you posted...thanks for your help so far as I wouldn't have made it this far without the info. that you have provided me with.

 

I had a probelm with my 00 ranger, and it had the extended warranty, and that covered the racking pinion. so pretty sure that the original warranty will

 

Well, here's what happened...I went to my local Ford dealer and they took a look at my truck to check the numbers on the coil and PCM. As it turned out they didn't need to be replaced because the identification numbers on them were O.K. However, the goodnews was that they found my MAF sensor to be bad--its voltage was reading too high at idle. They explained that this can cause a truck to really ping!

It did surprise me that my MAF sensor was bad though because I had cleaned it a few weeks earlier and it looked fine. I guess one of those can go bad and in all appearances look O.K. My truck never had the check engine light come on as I assumed it would if there was an electrical sensor malfunction. I was also surprised as my truck was made in 2000 and only has 50,000 miles on it. It doesn't appear that the MAF sensor is very durable.

Now my truck no longer pings on 87 octane gas which makes me extremely happy! The bad news is that the MAF sensor cost me $170 for the part alone (this was not including labor). However, I am just glad to have the pinging gone. After trying everything else that I have tried it is nice to get to the bottom of the pinging mystery. Note: Before this I replaced the spark plugs, fuel filter, PCV valve, air filter, cleaned TB, cleaned MAF sensor, ran fuel injector cleaner, etc... These aforementioned changes did help my truck to run really smooth but it still pinged when the engine was warm and under any load at all.

Hope this helps someone else out there with a pinging problem. I think these MAF sensors may be causing a lot of the pinging problems that people are talking about.

PS The Ford dealership agreed with Ken that the PCM replacement would be covered under the emmissions warranty if it were defective.

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed and thanks for the information on the warranty.

 

Glad to give you an update. You all have been very helpful.