Hey yall...ive got a problem here. My truck has always had some very slight pinging under hard acceleration in 4th or 5th gear...mostly just 5th though which seams to be normal. well about a month ago my truck experienced a huge loss of power but no unusual pinging and the check engine light came on...i brought it in and got the DPFE sensor replaced...problem solved, or so i thought. This past weekend i went on a little fishing trip with my little 18 foot aluminum boat which i have towed many many times before with very little or no pinging. This time around though, my truck stuggled to tow it in pretty much every gear...it pinged constantly once i accelerated in 4th and 5th gear on a level road and the acceleration i was getting was very very minimal. At times i had trouble getting up to 60 mph and going up hills would sometimes cause me to have to downshift twice(manual tranny). It was so bad that half way through my 4 hour drive i stopped at a ford dealership to get it checked out. The mechanic ran a complete diagnostic and said everything looked fine. I told him that i changed my plugs recently to autolite dp and told him about the DPFE sensor that was replaced. His advice was to change back motorcraft plugs because the autolites are "crap" and are a cooler plug than the motorcrafts and dont last a long. So pretty much his advice to solve the power loss/pinging problem was switch back to the motorcraft and maybe get a engine system flush to clean out carbon buildup. When i got home last night i unhooked the boat and took my truck for a spin. Well it didnt ping as bad but still more than usual and i noticed the loss of power was still there as i had trouble gettin up to speed on the interstate. should i take his advice or could it be something else? to me it seams like a egr related problem...please help!

 

Try re-setting your computer by disconnecting the negative battery lead for about 10-15 minutes and then re-connect. Follow the computer relearn procedure in the owner's manual (battery replacement section) and see if that makes a difference. Your truck may need to re-learn fuel mixture/trim settings with the new plugs and DPFE sensor.

 

well even though it was probably a waste of money i went ahead and change the plugs back to motorcraft and reset the computer. After doing that i drove my truck around and still no improvement. I plan on taking it to the dealership tommorow and drop it off and tell them to give me a call whenever they decide to find out what is really wrong.

 

Autolite makes the motorcraft plugs if I'm not mistaken(or maybe just some of them). Find a new dealer. They are full of crap IMO.

Rand

 

well the dealership says that it could be either bad gas or carbon build-up. I know its not bad gas becuase ive been through 3 tanks with 3 different grades of gas. And im kinda doubting the carbon build-up excuse because it seams to me that the buildup would slowly get worse and not be a problem that arises so fast.