Hi to all, I hope you guys help me, because I live in El Salvador, Central America and we don´t have easy access to parts or scan tools. Also it´s important to know that shops around here charge 20 bucks for pulling out the codes.

Biography of my truck:
Ranger XLT manual transmission, 2.3L 4 cyl. born at the end of 1995 (OBDII compliant).
160 000 miles but it looks in good shape.
I bought the car and ship it to my country last year.

Symptoms:
The more noticeably is the lack of power in all gears when I try to run the car in a red light. Also in a hill if I stop in the middle, the car barely goes up, and all this with the A/C off. If i turn it on every thing is worse.
There is no pinging, but the CEL is on.
Another thing I notice is that once the car heats up it runs rougher, i feel a decreasing performance the more you ride, even if the temp gauge remains in the normal range.

I have taken the car to a shop to pull out the codes the first time, 6 months ago the "after catalyst O2 sensor" was changed, also the fuel filter, air filter, plugs (bosh, not motorcraft), now the O2 code is gone but I have another code:
"P0401 EGR Flow insuficient detected"

I have clean the DPFE sensor from carbon deposits, reset the codes but two days later the code is back.

I have read that it could be related to the fuel pump, or the vaccum line.

When I bought the car the A/C wasn´t working and hot air was comming out the vents, I read here at FTE that a vaccum leak could be the problem, I checked the lines and I found a vaccum line unhooked, i put it back and the A/C was working again.

Having in mind that I dont have easy access to change all the sensors that could be involved in the problem, can you tell me what tests could I make to isolate the problem a little bit.

Thanks

 

Sorry I forgot to mention when I rev up and put the pedal to the floor it fails to accelerate uniformly, it sputters in a intermitent way. this is only noticeably if you rev it up to the end.

Thanks

 

Your 401 code can be caused by a clogged EGR port,when you remove the EGR valve you will find a finger sized hole under it in the intake manifold,at the BOTTOM of this hole is a SMALL port that needs to be poked out with a stiff peice of bailing wire then reamed out with a pipe cleaner.you won't be able to see up in there because of its location,so just poke around until you feel it poke through.after you clean the port,unhook the neg. battery cable for 5 minutes to clear the codes.also you may want to test your TPS(throttle possition sensor) on the throttle body.

 

Thanks VIN I´ll check that and I´ll come back with the results. Do you think the 401 code is related to the loss of power or are we just eliminating variables here?

Thanks

 

I don't think the two are related.The reason I think the TPS may be the problem is I had a simular problem with my 95 (2.3L) when I bought it,no power,the guy I got it from thought something was bad wrong.Turns out if there is a low signal or no singal from the TPS then the PCM wont open the fuel injectors so basically your driving around in idle mode.you might try unpluging the TPS and plugging it back in a few times to be sure it is getting a connection,I've also seen a bullitin on prbblems with the wires going to it not connecting properly.You need a Chilton manual,it will show you how to test the TPS and check for proper voltage to it.its basically a varible resistor that changes voltage to the PCM as it gets turned when you apply the throttle.

 

There are 3 wires ran to the TPS.the one wire towards the passenger side of the truck is the refferance voltage. unplug the connector and check it for voltage with the engine off and the key in the run possition.you should get 5.0 volts.

 

Check the "sticky" at the top of the page for "technical information" and under engines click on TPS testing,this will tell you how to test the TPS. You will have to probe the back side of the connector with it pluged in.

 

Ok, yes I read the sticky I will check the voltage transition to see if the TPS is faulty or the connection is bad.

Thanks again