Hi,

I have a 2002, Ranger extended cab w/ the 3.0 liter and the 5 speed automatic transmission. I have roughly 22K miles on the truck. I drive about 100 miles per day. Lately, I've noticed pinging when cruising on the freeway, or when running at a steady 35-40mph. Also, truck does not start as well as it used to when cold.

Can anyone offer any ideas?

Thanks

 

Hi fredpet, welcome to Ford Truck Enthusiasts!

I moved your question to the 3.0L V6 Forum where I think you will be able to find plenty of ideas on pinging.

At the top of this forum is a Sticky Thread entitled "3.0L Technical Info & Tips" which has bunch of infromation on the 3.0L "vulcan" engine that you have in your Ranger. In fact, there is a whole section of the thread dedicated to pinging. Take a look:

3.0L Technical Info & Tips

Also, if you read through some of the recent threads in this forum you will find even more stuff on pinging.

Look around a little bit, maybe get some ideas yourself, and then post any more questions you might have!

 

I had a very similar problem with my 99 Ranger. I switched to a higher 89 octane of gas, and the pinging sound mostly disappeared. Try that and see if it helps.......

 

Basically you have predetonation of the combustable mix. Look into the items that could cause this.

The EGR valve is the first thing that springs to mind. Since you have a good deal of pinging, I will make this prediction "you will probably throw a CEL in a few weeks that will indicate an EGR condition". Pinging is the first sign of this. The EGR system cools down the head temperatures and keeps the pinging from occuring. The EGR valve is controlled by the DPFE. The DPFE is a know issue on the 3.0 and goes bad at about 30k on most ranger 3.0. The good news is that its only $50 and is easy to replace.

Go ahead and get a new fuel and air filter (you should do that anyway) and clean the MAF. If you have a metal DPFE . , swap it (I don't care if you know for sure its bad or not, just swap it for the plastic one). After all of this, disconnect the neg lead to erase the computer's memoruy of your engine characteristics and let it releran them. After about 10 miles the pinging should be gone.

 

Good info on the DPFE sensor. Question: Does it matter what brand of DPFE sensor that you purchase (Napa or Motorcraft)?

It seems that with certain parts (i.e. oil filter) Napa is great but that with others (i.e. PCV valve without plastic elbow) they are cutting corners or making their parts fit such a large population of vehicles that the specificity is lost.

Anyway, back to the DPFE sensor...this is going to be the next part that I replace in my battle to eliminate my pinging. As Kevin mentioned correctly above, my pinging does disappear when I use higher octane gas but it bugs me that it pings on 87. I won't quit until this problems is fixed.

If changing the DPFE sensor doesn't work then I will take my truck to the Ford dealer to have PCM replaced or recalibrated (as long as recalibration doesn't mean retarding the timing). I have already performed all the other tune-up steps (i.e. plugs, air cleaner filter, fuel filter, fuel injector cleaner, MAF cleaning, throttle body cleaning) and although these did seem to help the pinging it has not gotten rid of it completely. I will say that my truck runs great other than the pinging.

Fred, keep searching this web-site and asking questions as you will learn a lot from these guys. They have helped me a ton! Thanks FTE!

 

I don't know if "brand" matters, but from what I understand Ford re-designed the DPFE sensor. The older ones (that were prone to failure) were a silver colored all metal design, where as the newer ones are black and have plastic inlets for the hose connections. The older all metal ones corroded and that was what causes the DPFE to fail. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about this) You want the new design because if you get the older type, you'll just travel down the same road again. Or so the theory goes.

 

Hello Fred, I learned something new a few days ago. I tired everything to get rid of my pinging to no avail (other than using higher octane gas). Anyway, I took my truck to the dealer thinking that my coil and/or PCM might need to be replaced but it turned out my MAF sensor was bad. It looked fine in all appearances but its voltage reading was off at idle. The mechanic told me that a bad MAF sensor will cause an engine to ping badly. I was skeptical to say the least but I was desperate so I let them change it since they did all the diagnostic work. To my surprise my truck no longer pings! New MAF sensor runs about $170.

Maybe this will help you out.

PS My truck ran great, other than pinging, before having the MAF sensor replaced. Also note that my truck only had 50,000 miles on it. If this didn't work the next thing that I was going to replace was the DPFE sensor. Good luck!

John

 

Ok, so what's the final verdict? I have a 99 3.0 with loud pinging even with high octane fuel. I've heard of 100 remedies to supposedly aleveate the problem. So which one???

Clean MAF?
Replace MAF?
Replace PCM?
Replace DPFE?
Replace 02 Sensors?
Retard Timing?
Advance Timing?
Flash CPU?

Does anyone know of a way that actually works??
Please help!
RFD

 

Welcome to FTE RFD!!!

I would clean the MAF and test the fuel pressure. On most 3.0s the 93 gas cures the problem so I suspect another cause on yours. Do you get a CEL?

 

Thanks Ken....Let me clarify....When I use 93, it only pings under load.......but none the less, it still pings. But even still, why should a 3.0L V6 engine require High Octane in order to function properly? Being a newbie...I'm not sure I follow what the CEL is??

 

Sorry about that, Check Engine Light. There is a TSB about the pinging problem, email me if you would like a copy but not pinging with 93 is part of the tests. My truck will ping on 87 in the summer with the AC on, but with just a bit of 93 stops it. I never had the TSB work done. My email is racsan99<img src="images/smilies2/an...In Posts!</b>).

 

Take a look through the 3.0L V6 Technical Info & Tips Thread located at the top of this forum, scroll down to the " Pinging & Spark Knock" section, and you'll find some relevant information in there.

 

RedFuelDlux I hear your pain! I thought that the pinging was going to drive me nuts! In looking at your list I can't say for sure what you need to do but by process of elimination I would remove advance timing (this will make pinging worse). To follow up on my earlier post in this thread my truck did start to ping again on a hot day using 87 octane gas, but not as bad as it did before the Mas Air Flow sensor was replaced. Now I run the mid-grade octane Fuel and the pinging is gone unless I excellerate heavily in 4th and 5th gear at low engine rpms.

Once the weather around here cools down a little I will reassess the pinging condition. I think it will likely get better once the temperature is a little cooler. If the cooler temps don't help then I may consider the cooler (180 degree) thermostat. I might further add that my engine NEVER pings until it is at normal operating temperature.

Can you make your truck ping when it is cold or still warming up? I am just curious...to see if your pinging is similar to mine or not.

Unfortuanely, I do believe that these engines do have a tendency towards pinging. I know that my glove box manual even explains that pinging under certain conditions is normal. This didn't make me very happy.

Perhaps I should also mention that I have been running my engine at a higher rpm range than I used to (2-3,000 rpm range during shifts as opposed to 1-2,000 rpm range) and have less pinging. I think that this helps reduce carbon build up as well.

Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress.

John

PS I was also reading in my glove box manual that the Flexible Fuel engine (FFV) is made to run on E85 (Ethanol) which has a higher octane rating than regular 87 octance fuel. (I don't know enough about fuel to explain how this works--just going by manual.) It seems reasonable to me that since this engine is designed to run on E85 (higher octane) as well that it might prefer gas with a slightly higher octance rating. This is just my theory...

 

Hi,
I have replaced DPFE, changed to Autolite double platinums and cleaned MAF. Still have pinging. I will keep plugging away at possibilities until remidied. Also no trouble codes are present.
I, however, was wondering if it matters if you clean the MAF with carb/choke cleaner, or throttle body cleaner?

 

Maxi, it is recommended that you use TB cleaner, rather than carb/choke cleaner... if you cleaned your MAF already with the carb/choke cleaner, then I wouldn't worry about it. In any case, it sounds like you can rule out a dirty MAF as a cause of your pinging.