Yesterday I was driving around and it seems that I lost at least one cylinder. I only drove it enought to get it to my girlfriends house and I never got the fire back. When I stoped I smelled really strong catilitic converter smell. That smell really overpowered anything else so I couldn't tell if there was raw gas smell too.

To me it would seem that it could be a coil pack, O2 sensor (as it seemed to idle good for about 5 sec before it started missing, upon restart), or a clogged injector.

I filled up with gas that morning and put about 60 miles on the tank before I got the miss... so.. I don't know.

If I take it to autozone will the code, oh yea I got a service engine light after it was hapening for a litle while, tell me what is wrong or will it just say that its missing?

any other help would be appreciated.

Thanks
harleystyles

 

What engine, year, truck?

And yes, take it to autozone and have the code(s) pulled. If you can bring them back here the knowledgable 4.6/5.4 folks will be able to pretty easily figure out what's going on.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Yep, tell us what engine/year that you are working on and post the code and we can help you cure the problem.

 

2000 5.4 in a Harley f-150.

I took it to autozone and the fault was cylinder three missfire, or something of the sort.

I couldn't get the plug loose there, so I just got through changing it at work. I blew out the hole before I took out the plug, changed it, and blew out the boot on the coil.

I just drove it for about thirty minutes and it missed twice in the first 15 min. and none in the last. I'm calling it good for now. I'm guessing it was moisture or, although the plug looked good, the plug. Hopefully I don't have to get a new coil.

 

A new coil boot may be needed if it acts up again.

 

We have something like the same problem with our Excursion. My wife got gas at a local Sam's Club one day and the next we got a serious miss. It runs OK at takeoff and under high excelleration, but just keeping it at 40 - 45 mph it bucks wildly. One mechanic tell us it probably the fuel filter and since we've had the Ex for 3 years we replaced it. It ran good for about 30 minutes and started it again. Today another mechanic tells us (since we haven't got a engine light) its the Mass Airflow Sensor. We replace it with one from Autozone and no help. Does this sound like yours, harley? We have a loud smell when we park as well!

 

I would have figured the MAF was the issue... I have had that experience of rough moving but it was at 55-60mph and unplugging the sensor corrected the issue, so I replaced it - it wasn't on the truck though.

You can swap coils/boots and see if the problem follows the suspect.

-Kerry

 

How do you know which to swap if you haven't got a Check Engine light?

 

Acutally mine was missing the whole time it was running. Just running on 7 cylinders. I'm assuming it has to be missing for a set ammount of time for the light to come on.

I have experienced missfires during above high load and low rpm's. like when trying to accelerate with the torque converter locked in OD. I don't know what causes it though.

 

Our Excursion is still running rough and we still don't have a "CHECK ENGINE" light. The last mechanic we let check it said that if it misses and doesn't get a light, it is probably the MAF sensor. That didn't fix ours!

 

Our light eventually came on, but it was two days of hwy driving on a 1000 mile trip... so we would be doing the 60-65 mph regularly... bucking around.

The smell of gas makes it sound like something else, Glenn. Like a fouled injector or bad O2 sensor the O2 sensor is th ebiggy, since you may not get a light if it's malfunctioning - you won't get a light. Without the CEL and codes, we're not gonna solve your problem here. You need it hooked up to a full blown data checker. That's gonna be pricey.

Harley, you're right, the engine error has to come in a few times to be set and cause the light. It will also go away on its own if the error clears. I don't recall the specifics... someone will postup the theory of operation.

-Kerry

 

This sounds like torque converter shudder to me. Has the trans fluid been changed?

 

The fluid has never been changed as far as I know. Would it need to be at 75+K miles?

 

Every 60,000 miles is recommended on the tranny fluid change.

 

You can get misfires and no check engine light. Believe me

With a good scanner, a mech/tech can check for misfires.

And keep in mind, lots of things can go wrong and not light the check-engine light, but are obvious once you hookup a scanner and look at all the parameters.

Things like EGR duty cycle, MAF flow, engine temp(!), tranny temp(!) can all effect how the vehicle runs and shifts.