It's a 2002 Ford Ranger Edge with 48K miles. Everything was going good, then, after about an hour of driving it, a squealing noise started emitting when I pressed on the accelerator. I got her home, and figured that the belts just needed tightening/loosening/re-aligning. No problem, I'll take her to the Ford dealer tomorrow. However, when I put her in idle and tried the accelerator to see if the squeal would keep happening, the engine would not go past 3,000 RPM...and it shook like a bronco when I pushed on the accelerator more. Any idea why this would be happening? I don't want it to keep me up tonight.

Ben

 

I have a 02 Edge 3.0 also, you will also find that your top speed is about 90MPH or so. You can thank the Computer, it limits the RPM to about 3000 and / or your top end.

 

Belts would be one of the main reasons for the the squealing.

 

It could be a camshaft synchronizer causing the problem. It would really depend on where the squeal was coming from.

 

It's hard to say what may be causing your truck to squeal without seeing it up close, but my 2001 Ranger was squealing and I found it to be a worn belt. At first I thought it was a tensioner pulley, and I tried lubricating it with no luck. It didn't stop until I changed out the belt. The belt didn't look that bad to me so I kept dismissing it as the cause of the problem.

Good luck!

 

The 3000 RPM limit in neutral is normal the computer prvents overreving without a load on the engine. In gear it will rev past 3000 rpm.

 

the 3000 rpm is normal its just a rev limiter and it skips because its getting cut out and back in really fast, but the squeeling is prolly the belt

 

I agree, the rpm limiting to 3K, is probably the rev limiter doing it's thing.

The squeal is probably the belt slipping, but seeing as how it didn't do it from the get-go, makes me wonder if there isn't another root cause, like maybe oil or coolant on it from a sprung leak somewhere, or maybe a belt driven accessories bearing, or maybe a idler, or tensioner pully bearing, or maybe the belt tensioner spring has gone belly up.

Look at the belt tensioners indicator & see if it shows the belts tension to be within the cast in range marks, on the tensioners casting, if not, suspect the tensioners sprng.

Let us know what you find.

 

I agree with these guys if you want to get rid of that 3k problem get a performance chip for it. These trucks are tough lil suckers so don't worry to much about it.

 

Your problem is the Camshaft Position Synchronizer. This will sound JUST LIKE a belt squeal, and can also limit your RPM's to 3000.

Yes, you cannot rev past 3000 in neutral, but in gear it should smoothly go all the way to redline.

When these go bad, the camshaft signal tends to get erratic above 3000 rpm, causing it to 'act' like a rev limiter.

If any of you other guys can't exceed 3000 rpm in gear, then you need to get the replaced.

As far as the SPEED LIMITED, mine is limited to 96MPH. This was done as a computer reprogram by Ford to prevent transmission problems. They found out that the tailshafts of the transmissions (both auto and stick) were braking off as a result of excessive vibration at speeds above 100MPH.

Normally I would think this was a 'dodge' from fixing the actual problem, but personally I see no reason why any truck should be driven at such a high speed, as they become unsafe (they aren't sports cars afterall).

 

Since I don't push my truck over 2000rpm unless I want to bend over and grab my wallet...

 

Well, I just bought a 2002 Ranger Edge, also. I started hearing the squealing rarely, but enough to cause me to cut the radio of. The truck only has 42,000 miles, but as near as I could tell the squeek was coming from the front. I wiggled (engine off) the idler pulley...it has in and out play...then I sighted across the face of the pulleys, and the tensioner pulley was definitely at an angle. I took it in and had the belt, tensioner, and idler all replaced (the tensioner looked like too delicate an operation for my bi mitts!).
The belt was definitely heavily cracked, and each pulley has side-to-side wear in my hand when on a shaft, but not particularly 'rough' in rotation.

I guess I'll just wait and see if that got it, of if that pesky CPS acts up (which I will do myself). Just had the work done today, and haven't driven it over 100 miles since. (or $20.00, as I now think of it).

 

I have to agree with that mine was limited to 95-98mph but I suspect that the prev. Owner swapped for the 15" wheels from 14", throwing off my speedo (and causeing several debocles with the local men in blue). I got my performance chip so I could spank my singer's Civic si in a burnout (and i did). These trucks are really limited by the ECU. But, if you don't plan on hauling REAL close to the towing limit, or you wanna spank civics. They don't help mpg as much as they're hyped, they do work well in combination with other things.

But I digress,

If you're having problems in gear i would take it to ford (or where ever you bought it from) and have them look into it. I went from a 95 mustang v8 to a 3.0 Ranger, its quite a power and pep reduction but these are awesome trucks. (I'll probably never drive anthing else).