03 150 econoline 5.4 engine miss

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#16

12-09-2009, 06:35 PM

wikid

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Quote:

Originally Posted by thumper477

You said "no check engine light "in your first post.Are you sure the light works?Some sneaky people disable the CEL when they are selling a vehicle to hide problems.If the light does not come on key on engine off then somebody had disabled the light.If the light does'nt work you will need a scanner to read the codes to see if there are any misfire codes present.If you do change the plugs I personally would not change just the coil boots because of the amount of work involved if the coil boots don't fix the skip.If it was'nt a van it would be a different story but vans just are a pain to work on and you don't want to go in there more than once.Just my humble opinion.I have been wrenchin full time for too many years and am an ASE master tech with the L1 endorsement.Good luck.

So I went out and cyled my key and found a "service engine soon" at the lower right side of the dash panel. Would this be different than a "check engine light"
Of course it is only lit when I turn the key on and not when its running. I just wanted to clarify that. I do not see a "check engine light" with the motor symbol. If this has been disconnected where would I look to reconnect it? One more question. Is there a reasonable code reader I could purchase for myself and would it be comprehensive enough for most diagnostics?
thanks
Don

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#17

12-10-2009, 05:59 AM

thumper477

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The Actron CP9175 scanner is a great homeowner quality scan tool.About 85 bucks on Amazon.com,free shipping and no tax.The service engine soon light is the same as the CEL so it is working on your van.There are many things that will cause driveability problems such as yours without lighting up the CEL or setting codes.Fuel pressure,goofy O2 sensors,dirty mass airflow sensor,plugged fuel filter,vacuum leaks,transmission torque converter problems,EGR system issues,etc,etc.No code problems are much harder to pinpoint and usually require a lot of diagnostic work by a qualified tech to find the cause(s).You might have to bite the bullet on this one and seek professional help.Coils and plugs are a constant problem with the 5.4 but usually they set a misfire code and light up the CEL in the process.My 2001 f150 5.4 has had more than one incident with this.

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