Hey ya'll,
I'm new here, as I just bought my husband a 2002 Ford Ranger 2.3L 2x4 manual for his welcome home from deployment gift. We LOVE it, but man it's been a piece of work lately!
Bought it up in Montana, and it made the move down with us okay, but we started having some problems in California. We were on our way to our new duty station, San Diego.
I know the 2.3L is notorious for being sluggish, but it was getting pretty bad. Rough idle, loss of power in all gears, especially 1st, 2nd, and 5th, trouble starting. I tried fixing it myself: pulled and cleaned the MAF, replaced the TPS, and put in a new air filter (it had a K&N from previous owner). Took it to the dealer: they cleared a bunch of codes and replaced the MAF and the MAPS and it ran a little better. Still drops power in second gear unless you floor it.
We needed it smogged to get our gate pass for base, but it failed by one section (a 98 where it should have been at 25 ). It spit out a code P0113. I know what the code is and what it means, but since the air filter and MAF are already brand new, what else could be wrong?
The MAF and the IAT are actually together on this year truck, according to my Haynes manual, and it's not anywhere on the housing between MAF and throttle body, so I'm going to assume the manual is 100% correct.
To me, it sounds like the only thing left to be wrong could be the wiring. I've checked that it's all connected, but haven't searched the lines for a short. If that's the case, should I leave it up to the dealer to fix? Anyone know a ballpark cost estimate for a repair like that?
Thanks in advance! Seriously, this site has been a saving grace!

 

comment: I don't trust haynes or chilton for specifics as I have found them to be woefully inadequate or even wrong. If there was a wiring diagram in the manual, go look for how to test the IAT and test it. You might also look to see if a high altitude kit was installed and remove it.

may not be a short, more probably a ground being not connected or dirty. see ford TSB 16094

series of thoughts: pull the plugs and check them then gap them. Old man method of determining what is going on internally. P0113 also can relate to the O2 sensor, fuel system, or even strangely: VSD. so a way to check stuff while running is required here.

If the dealer place didn't fix the issue, then it will be a replace parts thing for them until they get lucky and therefore expensive.

 

P0113 IAT high input, being that it is high that tells me it is an open, if it was shorted it would read low. I would examine the terminals, and if there is any sign of greenish corrosion that may be your problem. I would bet you have an open in a wire someplace, I would check continuity from the PCM to the IAT terminals. If you find one open I wouldn't spend alot of time digging I would just run a new wire from the PCM to the IAT. Good luck.

 

Welcome to FTE & a Big Thanks for your service!!!! An oldy moldy east coast Airdale here!!!!

I like all of the ideas so far & if the new duty station has a "hobby shop" as they used to be called, maybe your hubby could check out a scantool that'll read live PID feeds from the computers sensors to the computer at KOEO, or while the engine is running & your doing a wiggle/thump test on the IAT wiring & electrical connectors. That way you could monitor the IAT live feed to the computer to see what its doing.

Dang, sounds like the Dealer has already begun to throw parts at it without a proper trouble shoot, didn't they test the old MAF/IAT assy before replacing it???? Are you certain they used a new, not reman part????
Just because the MAF/IAT assy is new, doesn't automatically make it good, I've seen plenty of bad parts right out of the box, so make the new IAT section prove itself with a continuity test. Also with your multimeter on the 20 VDC scale, check its VREF voltage at the electrical connector at KOEO, so you know its getting its B+ operating reference voltage from the computer. If that's ok, check/back probe the signal return at the engine bay firewall computer electrical connector, so that your certain its getting that far without corruption.

If the IAT PID to the computer about true air temp entering the engine is corrupt, it'll cause the computer to corrupt the air/fuel ratio going into the engine & that sure can mess with driveability & emissions, all a vicious circle!!!!

Because you may have more than one problem, also post All trouble code Numbers the Dealer found & cleared & All you now have, as they can offer up good trouble shooting clues.

More thoughts for consideration, keep us posted on your trouble shoot.

 

Hey guys,

THANK YOU for all the replies! Sorry I've been MIA. However, your suggestions allowed me to prod the dealership. So...

Took it back to the dealer, and they spent two days with it. Finally admitted that they had "never seen this problem before" and contacted Ford corporate who told them to run a back pressure test. It failed miserably, which would explain the smog fail. 21 PSI ahead of the cats where it should have been 3 PSI...

They called me and told me this: It needed a new catalytic converter (this model has two, they weren't sure which one is was without welding it open). Also, the check engine light was missing a bulb. I'm pretty sure it was working when I bought it (normal turn on, then off at start up)....So I'm hoping the dealership didn't remove it and forget to put it back the first time it was there.

Anyway, they quoted me $2574 for the cat ALONE (no taxes, labor, etc included). Uhm, no. Took it to a muffler shop. Turns out both cats are bad and now it's throwing an EGR code P0403. Which I understand could actually mean a bad cat anyway...So I'm hoping it goes away after the $800 cat replacement with the muffler shop. They told me the pre-cat collapsed first and destroyed the rear cat.

OH, by the way, that P0113 code was left over from the first trip to the dealer. They "forgot" to clear the code and it was inactive.

Hoping that EGR code goes away so I don't have to pull that and clean it. Think maybe it would be stuck open by debris from the engine choking on exhaust for so long? (1500+ miles??) Haha! I'm surprised it made it to San Diego. I would not have guessed that it was a cat from the way the engine responded at full throttle.

Least to say, I'm feeling stupid for not triple checking the dash before I purchased that truck. Stupid bulb. Good thing we love this truck. Plan on keeping it till it dies. Just hit 160k.

Unfortunately, that dealership could have trashed my perfectly good sensors worth $600, according to them. However, they could have been trashed anyway because of the backflow of exhaust for so long...

As for now, I'm waiting for the muffler shop to call me to pick it up. I'll update when it makes the 6 hour drive back to San Diego! Might even be tonight, if I'm impressed by the acceleration, lol.

Thanks ya'll, God bless.

 

You say the MAF was recently replaced? What brand was used? I use only Motorcraft for parts like this, had too many aftermarket ones bad right out of the box.

 

$2600? man I thought Caddy parts were crazy money. I have seen a cat so plugged the car wouldn't even start. Why is it 6hrs away?

 

pawpaw, thanks for your service, too!

Whatever parts were replaced is what the dealer threw at the problem the first time before they diagnosed it. I wasn't aware that they were going to change parts (because they actually never called me to inform me of that), so I when I asked them to keep my parts, they were already thrown away. They tested MAF and MAPS again second time into them, and they were functional.

Yea, ridiculously expensive right, Phinxter? I did learn that CA has it's own standards for smog, so cats are MUCH MUCH more expensive in CA than the other 49 states (aka Federal). Sticker on emissions under the hood tells you what the engine can run.

6 hours away because I'm from San Luis Obispo, where my folks are currently. But I live in San Diego with my husband. I took the truck up for a visit and had it crap out on me again...

Still haven't picked up the truck...he needed more time to weld it into place. So this morning around 10. I'll let you know what's up with the EGR code, hopefully it just goes away as a result of proper pressure from the new cats.

 

The cats could have been damaged if it was driven long enough with a corrupt air/fuel ratio that was overly rich with fuel, or if it had a bad misfire, or leaky fuel injectors, or slow/lazy to respond O2 sensors.
Do you know if, or when the O2 sensors have been replaced, as with the mileage currently on this ride, if they're OEM sensors, they've already lived about two lifetimes as most are ready for replacement between 75K-100K miles as their voltage switching range & speed slows down with age, so the computer gets delayed feedback on how its doing controlling the air/fuel ratio. All that can affect driveability, mpg, timely air/fuel ratio correction ect.

What I'm wondering is, if the cat converters ceramic matrix was melted down & plugged up inside, restricting exhaust flow & creating excessive back pressure, as it now seems was the case with the back pressure that was measured, something upstream was causing the cats to run hot & that's usually caused by an overly rich fuel/air mixture. SO, the question is what was causing it & is it now put right, so the new cats aren't damaged?????

Certainly a faulty AIT sensor can cause air/fuel mixture problems by giving the computer corrupt info about true air temp entering the engine & you had an AIT sensor circuit trouble code, which we hope has been put right with the new MAF/AIT sensor combo replacement.

The MAF sensor can be remanufactured/repaired, so it wasn't thrown away. I wasn't aware that Ford was also using a MAP sensor along with a MAF sensor on the 01 2.3L engine. Maybe someone that knows that year/model engine will answer up, because if it doesn't use an MAP sensor, they charged you for something that it doesn't have!!!

Will be interesting to hear how it goes after the new cats are installed, so keep us posted.

 

Well here in NY all the new cars sold require CA emissions. No actual smog testing is done, although NYC used to, not sure if they still do. I had a 2002 Deville in the shop with a bad cat and a new oem part was about $1500, we found an aftermarket replacment for just...$800 I'm not so sure CA has better quality emissions equipment. I work on both CA and FED, usually the CA stuff had some extra stuff the FED don't like a secondary air system or an EGR. whatever.