2016 Expedition EL Limited.
Traveling the interstate today, running cruise control, I accelerated manually to get passed a car and change lanes, then left off and let cruise take over. I immediately noticed my engine symbol blinking. It did so for the next few miles then stopped. I never noticed any loss of power or any hiccups. Any ideas, should I be concerned.

 

You should have codes read.

 

Generally speaking, a blinking CEL means it has detected a misfire condition. That isn't always the case, however, so I won't say that is for sure what happened. A CEL in any form (solid or blinking) is cause for concern and should be investigated.

First thing you need to do is get codes read, whether at a service shop or at your local auto parts store (unless you have a code reader yourself). Use those codes to troubleshoot the issue.

 

I’ve been having this trouble with my 2020 recently. Every time it has happened, it has been a coil going out and it fails to fire the spark plug under load.


the flashing CEL means that the computer has detected a catalyst damaging misfire event. Usually while the CEL is flashing, the fuel injector for the offending cylinder is shut off and the miss is very easily noticed.

In my case it was the difference between climbing a hill with my camper easily at 65mph vs crawling up dropping gears at 45 mph.

Im SHOCKED that you could have a flashing CEL and not notice a loss in power. For me it was pronounced Enough that my wife could feel it in the passenger seat and immediately asked “what’s wrong with the truck?”

regardless. As said above. A flashing CEL means a misfire was detected. You should have a pending P030X code stored to guide you to the problem.

if your plugs have more than 60,000 miles on them, that could be a contributing factor to the problem. But the coils are highly suspect. I’ve lost two coils already this year with only 81,000 miles. I don’t travel anywhere without a spare coil anymore.

spend good money on a good coil if you have to replace one. A cheap coil will get you out of a bind, but the better ones will last a lot longer. Motorcraft, Echlin, Delphi, Denso are where I prefer to go given the chance. That said, O’Reilly’s house brand (standard?) comes with a lifetime replacement warranty and has been working fine for the last 10,000 miles. The nice thing with them is that they are everywhere and if you have a failure, you can easily find a replacement.

buy two and keep one in the glove box. 10 minute job along side the road … ask me how I know. Twice.

 

I actually experienced what you’re talking about last year on a trip to Florida. Stuttering up a hill, flashing CEL, noticeable loss of power. When I had it serviced a month later, it had no codes stored. I’m at 133k miles and never done anything other than routine maintenance.

 

If it didn’t happen again any codes would be gone after a month.