2003 Sport Trac Engine Loop Hunting
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2006
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2003 Sport Trac Engine Loop Hunting
Hi I'm new to this forum and have a question for the "Ford Guys". I'm petty familiar with GM and have my own OTC monitor for Engine management systems. I'm also an Electronics Engineer. I'm starting to go through my girlfriends 2003 Sport Trac and am in the process of the standard plugs and air filter first. They were all shot at 70,000 miles. There is an intermittant 'Hunting' in the loop at idle, usually when cold and not severe enough for the engine to stall. My monitor software is Duece 2001 and I hope either Generic OBD 2 or lying to it about the year works so I can look at the parameters. My question is can anyone give some advice with this problem on the 4.0 Liter six. No check engine light on, but I haven't scanned for pending codes or parameters. Any suggestions on things I should look at? Any common problems with this system? Are there any new programs for this engine? As soon as I get more detail I will post it.
Hotshot
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 12,170
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From: The hills of No. Calif.
Hi and Welcome to FTE! Please take a moment to check out the Guidelines as they contain important info that you'll need when posting here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/guidelines.html
Just because there is no CEL (Ford changed the name of it MIL-Malfunction Indicator Light in later vehicles) doesn't mean there are no codes stored so the first thing to do would be to scan for codes,
There are a couple of things common to late model Ford EFI vehicles that are worth checking out: the Mass Air meter element can get a coating of dirt and gunge on it and should be checked and carefully cleaned; the same goes for the IAC valve, it can get some crud in the passages and on the pintle which keeps the valve from closing properly and can affect idle quality; and the throttle body itself can get a nice coating of crud which should be carefully cleaned despite the warning sticker which says not to clean it. The reason they don't want you to clean it is because Ford coats the inside of the throttle body with a protective film that is supposed to slow the buildup of crud and conventional carb cleaners are too caustic and can remove that coating. Be sure to use a low VOC throttle body cleaner instead.
I would suspect that performing these tasks along with your tuneup will solve the problem. Let us know how it goes.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/guidelines.html
Just because there is no CEL (Ford changed the name of it MIL-Malfunction Indicator Light in later vehicles) doesn't mean there are no codes stored so the first thing to do would be to scan for codes,
There are a couple of things common to late model Ford EFI vehicles that are worth checking out: the Mass Air meter element can get a coating of dirt and gunge on it and should be checked and carefully cleaned; the same goes for the IAC valve, it can get some crud in the passages and on the pintle which keeps the valve from closing properly and can affect idle quality; and the throttle body itself can get a nice coating of crud which should be carefully cleaned despite the warning sticker which says not to clean it. The reason they don't want you to clean it is because Ford coats the inside of the throttle body with a protective film that is supposed to slow the buildup of crud and conventional carb cleaners are too caustic and can remove that coating. Be sure to use a low VOC throttle body cleaner instead.
I would suspect that performing these tasks along with your tuneup will solve the problem. Let us know how it goes.
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