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Hey....I have a 1994 F150 4x4. It has the 5.0L and has a very weird problem. The truck will be running great then out of no ware, the check engine light will come on and the truck will run terrible and sometimes die and refuse to start for about 5 minutes, but as soon as the light goes of, the truck runs fine again....I am at a loss for ideas and any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Devon
Just got done with a similar problem on my 94 F-250. It would run sometimes all day, sometimes die after 10 minutes and restart after 20, or some days it decided to stay home. It turned out to be the pick-up sensor in the distributor. A Carquest lifetime warranty replacement has had it running problem free ever since.
Yours sounds a bit more regular tho. It could be as simple as a fuel filter. Try and find out when the last time was that it was changed. Depending on where you drive and how much, 40-60k could be enough to warrant a new filter.
A good start would be going to a shop and finding out what code is throwing the CEL on. That should at least point you in the right direction.
I think I am going to buy a scanner because all of my local parts stores say they can not read it. I also just noticed that ontop of what the truck was doing, it is now blowing a bit of black smoke and is running rough. Any new idead????
Ooh. This could actually be the ECU then. My 94 went through a phase where it started off fine, includung CEL being ON because it doesn't have an EGR valve. Every one in a while the CEL would kick OFF and the the thing would skip and start missing occasionally. It got worse and worse and nothing could fix it. We tried spark plugs, fuel filter, pressure regulator, and yelling. Lots of yelling. Eventually I had to limp it down interstate at about 45 MPH to a specialty shop. They ran some tests and figured out that it was running way too rich and the timing was off. They replaced the computer and distributor. (For those keeping track at home, this is the same distributor that needed replaced 3 months later) Fixed it right up.
And I'm no scanner expert, but I've been told that when the computer is bad, it will throw a code saying something else is bad, it can't tell on itself.
Its an expensive fix tho, mine was $600. I'd ask a local guru and see if they know any tips, but the ECU is a definite possibly.
Sounds like you're tripping into limp home. Without the code reader, testing every circuit or blindly replacing parts are your only options. Buy the reader and then we can go from there. If you have a friend with the same truck you could swap computers, but your issue sounds like a sensor/sensor wiring issue, not ECU.
-Mike
A concur (now). Find a friend with the same truck (or try a jy) and swap ECU's to check. It may be as simple as a bad connection (except the memory code, which may just be a hiccup) Some of those codes mean different things depending or if they were KOEO, CM, or KOER. It is important to know/mark what was from where. Also are these codes from a reader or paperclip? I have seen many a miscount lead to expensive 'repairs'.
-Mike