Another Orange Wrench Problem...

[PotatoExplorer]

Here we go again! I was driving across town to the bank with an Explorer full of groceries and my wife and kid. Pull up to the ATM, all is fine. I sit there idling with the vehicle still in drive, my foot on the brakes, then the magical orange wrench popped up. No signs, no changes, just popped up on the dash. I go to leave the bank and it's driving really bad. RPMs climb higher than normal and as soon as I let off the gas it's as if the Explorer slams on its own brakes. All momentum gets halted sooner than normal. I've experienced this several times before with the orange wrench and the weird driving. I usually figure it's in "limp mode," no? To fix I just pulled off to the side of the road, turn the vehicle off than turn it back on. Instant fix, until next time.

In a few weeks I got to drive this thing down to North Carolina with the wife and kid... I'm not feeling very confident!

 

[tripplec]

I know from reading the manual on my son's V8 Explorer. The engine etc is monitored for low oil and temperature. Measures are taken should the computer sense something out of the desired range. Clearly I don't remember the specifics but a place to start and/monitor. There should be code for that generated.

 

[bobditts]

get yourself the OBDII to USB cable and download forscan on a laptop. It will read the codes and you can narrow it down from there. Here is the cable I got an it worked perfectly to read the wrench code.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-wired-E...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

[Explorer_PL]

From my reply to another user today:

"Most likely one of the ABS sensors is bad.
If front, then you need to replace the whole hub assembly, if the rear - it will be the ABS tone ring.
Either way, have it scan which wheel is throwing the code.
I think you can pull the fuse for RSC or ABS, and then you just don't have ABS brakes, and rollover protection."

 

[Tech By Trade]

I was going to say tone ring or wheel bearing. Get an elm327 and forscan and save yourself the headache of not being able to read the codes. A lot of the universal code readers will not read abs, restraint, or transmission codes. They only the generic engine codes.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

All good info! Thanks guys!

Bobditts, so buying that cable worked for Forscan on your laptop? I've had Forscan downloaded on my laptop for a while, but just never got around to buying the cable. For some reason I only remember finding an ELM327 cable for like $30-$40. If this worked for you, I'll buy the cable today!

Back when my wife had an 06 Ford Escape, I remember she had a broken tone ring at one point. The vehicle was almost damn near impossible to drive though since the ABS kept kicking on. So I could pretty much bet that there's something up with one of the front sensors? I can visually inspect the rear tone rings... maybe inspect the sensors up front.

 

[Explorer_PL]

For the tone ring, you can do visual. I saw mine cracked just by going under the truck and looking it over.

I got my elm cable for $ 7 and it works with my laptop

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELM327-OBD2...740846?hash=item41b2fc1bae:g:Bp4AAOSwLF1X2MhE

 

[D Hook]

Are you using the above item with Win XP or Win7?

 

[Explorer_PL]

I think my home laptop has 7 as OS.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

Ah crap, I just ordered mine... I have Windows 10. Does it only work with Windows 7?

 

[Explorer_PL]

Never tried but see no reason why not.

 

[D Hook]

Under "Features" it seems to indicate it won't work on Win 7. That's why I'm asking about what the OS is you're using it on.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Hmmm ...
Just checked, and I see that I got a new laptop at home with W-7 and see no Forscan on it so it could be the old one with XP.
I'll need to check one more machine in my office.

 

[bobditts]

forscan works great on my laptop running win10

 

[D Hook]

I have Forscan running on win 7. I was wondering about the ELM device:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELM327-OBD2...740846?hash=item41b2fc1bae:g:Bp4AAOSwLF1X2MhE
Under "Features" it indicates it doesn't work on Win 7. Just wondering if you got it to work on Win 7 or not.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

Yeah, that's more of what I was wondering too. I have Forscan running on Windows 10, but I had seen that same thing about the ELM device. I guess I'll find out here in a day or two!

 

[J_C]

The message about win7 might just be the trialware and malware apps. I wouldn't even put that little white/blue CD in a computer at all.
There are various sources for a driver for it then use Forscan. I found a couple references with a quick google search, one of which lists WinXP, 7, 8, and 10:

http://www.totalcardiagnostics.com/...elm327-usb-cable-on-windows-and-obd2-software

http://skpang.co.uk/elm327_USB.htm

 

[PotatoExplorer]

So I got everything to work (thanks J_C for that link... definitely would have been lost without it). Got everything connected to the Explorer and the only codes I got were a B2097 and a U2013. They just say that they are compass module failure, and compass module not responding, respectively. I'm not sure what that means since my on dash compass works properly. Does a malfunctioning compass module cause enough problems to throw the PCM into limp mode? I'm still trying to completely understand Forscan, but it appears that those are the only 2 codes. Everything else has a green check mark when it does the tests to the PCM, ABS, TCM, etc.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

Update -

Diving a bit deeper into the data I received from my first go at Forscan and I found something interesting. I was just messing around with the program when I did the first scan and had selected a few items under the Read PID Data menu. I selected some things that seemed important like "TPS sensor 1," "TPS sensor 2," "Throttle position," and "Ignition Timing." Well diving into the "Table" tab under Read PID Data, it says under IGNF_1 (the Ignition Timing selection) that "Ignition Timing Fault Detected For Cylinder 1."

I tried looking it up, but I have no idea what that means. Does that just mean there's a misfire in cylinder 1?

 

[J_C]

I would give cyl 1 a look, pull spark plug and examine, do a compression test, and I would change your sig color to black instead of red because red is normally associated with an emergency and a sig isn't one.