A dear friend of mine was driving to work about a week ago when his Windstar started giving touble. From what hes told me, it started losing power and eventually it died and wouldn't start;it wouldn't even crank. He called me up to help him so I went out there to lend a hand. At first we thought it was the alternator and/or the battery. So we jump started it and got it running. The SES light was on and stayed on after it was started, so I knew something was definately wrong. While it was running, I looked below the hood and things didn't sound like they should. It could bearly idle and sounded like things were out of sync with each other. With the power loss and what I would describe as a "piston slap", my best guess is that it's the Camshaft Position Sensor. Powerstrokes exhibit the same symptoms, but just to be sure, I'm asking for a little help.

 

You friend has to get the codes pulled. If the SES light is on, then there are codes stored.

Your CMP sensor guess sounds logical, but without the codes, it's still just a guess.

 

The van can't/won't move. He tried to have it towed the other day and the wrecker gave up and left it. The steering wheel just won't turn. So guiding it onto a flatbed wrecker wasn't a good idea. Is there some kind of portable code reader or tuner like the Diablo Predator or Superchips Microtuner? Or just a code reader in general?

 

Yes, there are portable hand held codereaders, they plug right into the OBD-II test connector located somewhere underneath the drivers side dash. I have one myself. So there is no need to move the van. Maybe you can rent a code-reader from AutoZone or some place like that.

 

My son has a '94 Ranger w/ a 3.0L.. The engine idles very high.. We have checked the MAF and the TPS and they are fine.. We did have a bad idle control valve so we replaced it.. It does not look exactly like the one we took off, but it has the part number they call for,so we used it and still have the problem we started with.. The engine will not idle down.. We also checked the TFI module..any ideas?? Thanks in advance.