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I have a 97 f150 4.6 vin w w/ 125,000 miles i drove along and my engine began to skip real bad. No ck. eng. light yet. All plugs, wires, hoses, Etc. were ok. Started driving 45 - 55 mph the skip started again, soon after my svc. eng. light came on eng. was still skipping / cutting out. (It seemed like one or more cyls. were cutting out). soon after the ck. eng. light started flashing, the same problem is still present.
Any help would be appreciated, Thanks, Louie
The first step is to see if there are any codes stored. You will need an OBD2 scanner to pull them. Autozone or another auto parts store will normally pull the codes for you free of charge. Post the codes and someone here should be able to point you in the right direction.
I'm not sure if your truck has the same coil over plug design like my 99 5.4l but if it does it is probably a bad coil. I just had to replace one on my truck last week. Hopefully you can pull a code and it will tell you what cylinder is misfiring.
Look at my post on a 2002 F150 coil problem - what you are describing is exactly what we've been experiencing - 3 times now. Also a mechanic at the dealer did mention that water is the enemy of this system and it seems to me the first time it happened was on a rainy day, and it just happened again today - and its raining....
also the cylinder kill test is pretty easy if you dont have access to an analyzer - just unplug the elec connection to the coils one at a time till you find one that doesnt make it run any worse.
He mentioned that his "check engine soon" light was blinking, for what I understand from one of the Ford dealer mechanic I spoke to wat back, blinking CEL meaning misfiring, but chances are code(s) may have not stored yet. When the "CEL" stayed illuminated, that's when definitely you will get a code. Yes, 1996 4.6 don't have the COP.
He mentioned that his "check engine soon" light was blinking, for what I understand from one of the Ford dealer mechanic I spoke to wat back, blinking CEL meaning misfiring, but chances are code(s) may have not stored yet. When the "CEL" stayed illuminated, that's when definitely you will get a code. Yes, 1996 4.6 don't have the COP.
I've heard this is a warning that fuel is being passed w/o being burned and may getting through to the CC (bad).
Get that code read and you will have a starting place.