Check Engine light
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Check Engine light
My '98 Expy is giving me the dreaded Check Engine light. The drive home yesterday was smooth up until I was a mile from home, then it started to shake(ride rough) a bit. Today, the Check Engine light blinked for a few seconds, then disappeared. On my way home (yet again!), the ride was somewhat rough and the CE light came on and stayed on. Luckily, I was about 3 miles from home and made it without a problem. The Expy is now parked in my driveway and I won't move it until I receive my Equus 3130 OBD scanner. The only other time I saw a CE light was when I replaced 4 of the fuel injectors and didn't seat them properly - but this was 3-4 years ago. Any ideas what may be causing this? I know w/o the OBD error code it could be anything - but I just wanted to see if anyone has had something similar. Thanks for the help.
'98 Expy EB 5.4L
'98 Expy EB 5.4L
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From: Georgia
A misfire will cause the Check Engine Light to flash while the misfire is occurring. Since your CEL is now on continuously, when you read the code you'll probably have a P030x where "X" will be the number of the cylinder that is misfiring. The code does not tell you why the cylinder is misfiring. You have to figure that out by performing other diagnostic tests. The misfire might be due to a fouled spark plug, a bad COP, or any number of things that can cause a misfire to occur. I've had my CEL flash like that and not feel the misfire, and other times the misfire is very pronounced. My misfire was due to plug wires.
(98 4.6L)
(98 4.6L)
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once you get the codes and can pinpoint the offending cylinder, a quick check would be to switch the plug wire or cop with another one, and see if the code follows the wire (or cop). if it does, then you know its the wire (or cop). you can also make sure that the plug is good and gapped correctly. if that does not work, there are several other things to check. cam sensor, fuel injector, crankshaft sensor, though i'm not sure whether or not the computer would throw a code for each one of those items.
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It was a misfire on the #4 cylinder. I swapped the #1 and #4 COPs and sure enough, the #1 cylinder is now misfiring. I ordered a set of 8 on eBay ($85) and should be getting them in this week. Hopefully this will clear up the rough ride/idling. Thanks for the help!
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RxWarrior
1997 - 2006 Expedition & Navigator
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Apr 29, 2007 10:36 AM
