just popped the CEL cherry! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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just popped the CEL cherry!

LONO100

Explorer Addict
Joined
March 23, 2011
Messages
2,911
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City, State
Bay Area CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
03 sport trac XLT
well fellas, the check engine light just tripped for the first time in my sport trac. before it came on, i noticed a few things. the truck still runs like a clock, but i noticed a pretty good decrease in my mileage for about a week leading up to the light being tripped, i also noticed during my last oil change that there's a good chance that the wires and plugs in my trac are probably the same ones it left the factory with. i have 85k miles on my very well maintained trac, my question to all of you grizzled sport trac veterans out there is, what's your guess to what tripped it? im going to get the code read either later on today or tomorrow at my local aamco, just want to see if anyone gets it right. im hoping its just some sparkplugs needing to be replaced, because if it's the cat or something like that im gonna be pissed!
 



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you're at 85K so P0172/P0174 ........seems to be the most common, or maybe P0401.

What's the prize for the correct guess?
 






you know, i havent thought of one yet, but bragging rights would definitely be in order! im going to get the codes read hopefully this afternoon. lets see if anyone gets this one right.
 






I, too, would guess p0172/0174, or possibly p0442 (small evap leak). I got this one after shocks were reaplaced and a hose at the evap box came loose.
 






My mileage went into the tank (pun intended) with a chronic P1151 (recently solved). Likely cause was a vacuum leak.

What do I win if I guessed right? ;)
 






Steve is probably right but since he already picked those codes I'll go for one of the codes for a cylinder misfire.
 






well fellas, great guesses by all but ranchero and gtyates were partially correct! just got the codes read and im getting 171 and 174. 171 is running lean (bank 1), and 174 is also running lean (bank 2).

you guys know your SH*T! thanks for the guesses fellas. with that being said, i naturally turned down their offer to check on my entire vehicle for over 100 bucks. so what should be my first course of action to fix this problem? im pretty sure its not my MAF, because that thing never misses a cleaning (with MAF cleaner only of course) and i treat it like the hope diamond. im guessing some sort of vacum leak possibly? what could cause bank 1 and 2 to both read "lean"? any help with where to start would be awesome. i would like to assume that the 02 sensors are doing their job both reading correctly, and try to find the root cause before replacing the sensors, so changing the 02 sensors is something id like to do as a last resort, being that i dont want to change them out and have them throw the codes again because the root problem wasnt fixed.

so where should i start!? i know you guys at the EF will have the answer!

thanks guys
 












ranchero, if you lived in california drinks would be on me tonight! after reading the link to your thread, this was the first place i looked, and bam! just like you called it!
WP_000631.jpg

WP_000630.jpg

you can see the little crack in this rubber elbow which is causing the vacum leak and my lean codes!!! well, i went my autozone, but couldnt find the exact size elbow, so im going to try a few other places and hopefully i can avoid the dealer. got a question, on one end thsi little elbow is fairly easy to remove, but on the other end (the end on the right side in my picture) it feels like there is a clamp holdign it on, but i dont see one? am i missing something?

like i said, you guys rule.
 






On mine it just pulls off on both ends. I found a heater hose at advance auto that had a 90 degree turn on it. It was much longer then I needed so I just cut it to the lengh I needed.
 






thanks for the tip cluster, i just did something similar to what you did. i was at my local pick n pull looking for a mirror for my little civic DD and i found a heater hose with a 90 degree bend in it with clamps on it too. paid about 2 bucks and im going to cut it to fit. i took a closer look and i dont have clamps on either end of my hose either but i cant get the damn thing off. beofre i hit the pick n pull the other day, i did a little temporary fix and used my bike tire inner tube patch kit with rubber cement to seal my cracked hose. it worked for the past few days and i havent driven my trac much since then but im probably going to put the new hose i found in later on today. im just hoping it wont be too much of a ***** sliding the new hose on.
 






Try to turn it first a bit with a channel locks if you can or just cut it off.
 






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