2012 Ford Explorer Misfiring...

1FastS197 · August 29, 2014

Good afternoon everyone, my wife has a 2012 Limited Explorer with the 3.5L in it. She called this morning and said the wrench light came on and it lost power and then started vibrating and came to a stop. She said it wouldn't go. She wasn't far from the house so I go to it and it has 1 warning but it won't tell me what it is but its running okay. Then sporadically the light goes away and it still runs fine. I believe it has bad gas, or at least that's my wishful thinking anyway but has anyone else had this happen or know of what this would sound like? I'm going to change the fuel filter tonight and put some fuel system treatment in it and see what happens with that. It has a little over 60,000 and right out of warranty (go figure) and I haven't put a filter on it yet. Any help is appreciated!

peterk9 · August 29, 2014

I think you can forget about the fuel filter. It appears to be a 'filter for life' and apparently is part of the fuel pump that is located on the gas tank. See the following thread;
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409799&highlight=fuel+filter

Peter

1FastS197 · August 29, 2014

peterk9 said:
I think you can forget about the fuel filter. It appears to be a 'filter for life' and apparently is part of the fuel pump that is located on the gas tank. See the following thread;
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409799&highlight=fuel+filter

Peter

That's about my luck... Thanks for the information!

1FastS197 · August 29, 2014

just from a little of my own research I'm starting to think it may be throttle body related... I'm going to see if its dirty and clean it...

13Sport · August 29, 2014

1FastS197 said:
Good afternoon everyone, my wife has a 2012 Limited Explorer with the 3.5L in it. She called this morning and said the wrench light came on and it lost power and then started vibrating and came to a stop. She said it wouldn't go. She wasn't far from the house so I go to it and it has 1 warning but it won't tell me what it is but its running okay. Then sporadically the light goes away and it still runs fine. I believe it has bad gas, or at least that's my wishful thinking anyway but has anyone else had this happen or know of what this would sound like? I'm going to change the fuel filter tonight and put some fuel system treatment in it and see what happens with that. It has a little over 60,000 and right out of warranty (go figure) and I haven't put a filter on it yet. Any help is appreciated!

At 60k lots of things could be the reason. Spark plugs might be a place to start, but shuddering isn't generally a symptom. Get a cheap reader that will tell you what the error code that was thrown is, that will save you tons of time and energy in diagnosing.

1FastS197 · September 2, 2014

13Sport said:
At 60k lots of things could be the reason. Spark plugs might be a place to start, but shuddering isn't generally a symptom. Get a cheap reader that will tell you what the error code that was thrown is, that will save you tons of time and energy in diagnosing.

I have an X4 and I checked for error codes with no codes showing... I tore it down and checked everything, throttle body is good... PCV valve needs replacing as it had oil in the intake but the bigger problem is the alternator... its only putting out around 13.00/13.10 volts back to the battery... anybody removed one of these?

imbett · September 2, 2014

re alternator

I believe your alternator is fine as it is charging more than 12 volts as you say is 13

1FastS197 · September 2, 2014

imbett said:
I believe your alternator is fine as it is charging more than 12 volts as you say is 13

it should be more around 14.0/14.3... normally around 12.8 the battery doesn't get recharged like it should and kills the battery... I can also see pieces of gray matter/shavings around the front of the alternator shaft, which I have seen a thousand times when an alternator bearing craps out... it sucks that a 2 year old vehicle with 63K on it has a bad alternator...

peterk9 · September 2, 2014

The Explorer has what is called a Smart Charging Alternator system.
A regenerative electrical charging system that charges the battery in place of the alternator anytime the engine is running. It increases alternator output under braking or deceleration by converting the kinetic energy into electrical energy.

Peter

1FastS197 · September 2, 2014

peterk9 said:
The Explorer has what is called a Smart Charging Alternator system.
A regenerative electrical charging system that charges the battery in place of the alternator anytime the engine is running. It increases alternator output under braking or deceleration by converting the kinetic energy into electrical energy.

Peter

Okay, but my battery indicator sight glass has turned yellow/red'ish... So I know that two year old battery shouldn't be bad or be that far run down, possible but probably not... after getting down in the fender well and listening to the alternator that sounds like nails on a chalk board and seeing pieces of the bearing coming out of the case I'm going to say the alternator is bad...

what I don't understand is "A regenerative electrical charging system that charges the battery in place of the alternator anytime the engine is running."

the only time an alternator is going to be charging the battery is when the engine is running... are you talking about when you are on decel it cuts the alternator off and uses the braking as a charging component? sorta like a hybrid?

peterk9 · September 2, 2014

Yes to the deceleration question. There is also another system that it has. Aggressive Deceleration Fuel Shut-Off (ADFSO) to maximize fuel efficiency.
Temporarily interrupts fuel delivery and consumption when slowing down while maintaining normal engine operation. The system uses the transmission to keep the engine running at a more efficient level when possible. Normal delivery resumes when vehicle reaches low speed or upon acceleration.
The two systems work hand in hand.
Just checked my battery and the eye shows Red. If I shine a flashlight on it, I can also see a small green indicator off to one side as well as another small red one. This is just after I completed a round trip of about 40 miles.

Peter

1FastS197 · September 2, 2014

peterk9 said:
Yes to the deceleration question. There is also another system that it has. Aggressive Deceleration Fuel Shut-Off (ADFSO) to maximize fuel efficiency.
Temporarily interrupts fuel delivery and consumption when slowing down while maintaining normal engine operation. The system uses the transmission to keep the engine running at a more efficient level when possible. Normal delivery resumes when vehicle reaches low speed or upon acceleration.
The two systems work hand in hand.
Just checked my battery and the eye shows Red. If I shine a flashlight on it, I can also see a small green indicator off to one side as well as another small red one. This is just after I completed a round trip of about 40 miles.

Peter

so the indicator eye is red on yours also... that's strange, I've had several new fords and it has always been green showing a good battery... does yours make any noise idling?

peterk9 · September 2, 2014

No noise at idle. I also expected to see GREEN. I don't drive that much and on a few occasions have already had a low battery indication on the MFT (Battery Saver Off). I believe I've had that at least 3 times since I got the vehicle on April 1st. Had the same thing with my 2011 Explorer. I usually just put the trickle charger on it and it comes back up to full charge after about 8-10 hours. The next time I do the charging part, I'll try to remember to check the 'eye' as well.

Peter

1FastS197 · September 3, 2014

Okay, so the alternator is charging like it is suppose to... I did some testing last night and I got 13.99 volts at idle and then I heard the engine change pitch and it came down to around 12.5 volts... Makes me feel better about the alternator but something is still making noise on the accessory drive... The alternator could still be the culprit but at least I know now how they work and the fact that it is working, it also has the gray looking matter on one side but not the other... I've never seen that before... it may be the belt so I'm going to replace it and see how that does...

2012 Ford Explorer Misfiring...

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