2016 EX PIU - started/running rough

[Reverend Biker]

This is my 3.7L n/a 2016 FPIU. The last three days have been rough, weather-wise. We had snow and freezing rain on Thursday. I took my Escape to work, not wanting to take chances with the worn Eagles on the Ex. It was sitting in my driveway on a hill, nose lower than the rear. The sun came out at noon, and it warmed up to almost 38 deg F. The Ex was covered with snow when I left for work, when I got home, almost all of the snow from the roof and hood was melted.

The hood and roof are black, where the rest is charcoal gray metallic. I hopped in to move the vehicles around to snow blow the top of the hill. I started it up and it started rough and ran like cr@p. My first thought was the water pump went.

I popped the hood and went in with my flashlight. I checked the oil and its a little dark, but it is due for an oil change. It didn't look like the milkshake description I've read about. I checked the coolant, and the tank level is right where it should be. Strangely, I can follow a trickle of water that came down the roof, windshield and cowl. It looks like it dripped down over the top of the intake and may have gotten one of the fuel injectors wet on the front of the block. Temp has been below 32 deg; while watert was trickling down it froze to the engine, the top of the intake and pooled around one of the injectors. Cr@p luck for that.

I stareted it up a few times, for no more than 20 - 30 seconds. I put some sea foam in the gas but am concerned to run too long running it as it is. I debated running it longer, to circulate the seafoam but if there is something wrong, I don't want to damage the engine. All the symptoms that I've read for a bad injector seem to fit. In over 100k miles on my Escape, I've not had an injector problem, so I have nothing to compare this to.

Here are a few odd things about what I am seeing, or actually NOT seeing:

1) No CEL or wrench light
2)Used OBD interface to run diagnostics, Pulled an archived code for a B1445 - 15
3) Strong smell of gas in the exhaust




The archived code is a strange one. In my app, that code is described as "Door Handle Switch Circuit Short to Ground". When I searched that code, it is for "Fuel Injector circuit short to ground". Can anyone validate which code description is correct? I strongly believe the app's description is wrong, but seeking confirmation.

Lastly, my app (Car Scanner) only sees that one archived code. It is not seeing any active codes.

If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know what you think. I included a few pics of what I saw under the hood. The damn fieldmice left me the acorns.

The circled area on the zoomed out pic shows where I saw traces of water, the arrow showing where the zoom in is. I zoomed in on the far-left front fuel injector, covered with ice.

Do you think the wet injector can be causing this ground fault? Does anyone know what diagnostic to run to find out which injector has the fault? I expected more from my scanner app but it still got me this far.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have...

 

[Steve8316]

...B1445 - 15
... In my app, that code is described as "Door Handle Switch Circuit Short to Ground". When I searched that code, it is for "Fuel Injector circuit short to ground". Can anyone validate which code description is correct?

A code that starts with "B" is a body fault; the injectors are strictly in the powertrain (P codes). Identifix show it to be "Rear Park Lamps Output: Circuit Short To Battery or Open" for that specific vehicle (same as mine).

Do you think the wet injector can be causing this ground fault?

I don't think it's water or ice - I'd put a few bucks on it being the mice. I live in the woods, so I keep rat poison pellets in all my vehicles (lawn mowers included). Occasionally, I get my neighbors' vehicles to fix for rodent damage.

(click this text)

 

[Reverend Biker]

A code that starts with "B" is a body fault; the injectors are strictly in the powertrain (P codes). Identifix show it to be "Rear Park Lamps Output: Circuit Short To Battery or Open" for that specific vehicle (same as mine).

I don't think it's water or ice - I'd put a few bucks on it being the mice. I live in the woods, so I keep rat poison pellets in all my vehicles (lawn mowers included). Occasionally, I get my neighbors' vehicles to fix for rodent damage.

(click this text)
View attachment 462208

I have been watching under the hood. I have poison pellets in both vehicles. I can say it doesn't look like they are touching the poison; there are plenty of acorns being shelled under the hood. Temp is back down below zero with the wind chills here for the next week. I'm hoping to get some research done on it this coming weekend. Thanks for sharing your insight.

 

[Steve8316]

...it doesn't look like they are touching the poison...

Then I'd either smear a little peanut butter onto the poison, or try some different pellets, or spray something with a lot of DEET (like Repel or Deep-Woods Off) all over the engine bay.

 

[Reverend Biker]

UPDATE:

Further investigation has shown that there is a leak under the rubber weatherstripping between the cowl and the hood. The angle the Ex is sitting on the hill has the runoff of melted snow and ice hitting the cowl weatherstripping and getting under it, and there are two spots where wires are wet/frozen. The bundle on top of the passenger side frame rail, and my front fuel injectors (all 3).

Today temps are supposed to hit 33, so I will be out there with my heat gun trying to melt it off and dry things out. A little WD should help once its all melted. The ice is thick enough that I couldn't chip it out with my pocket knife or a small screwdriver. I didn't want to risk damaging the plastic intake or any wires, so I opted to wait for the warmth of the next few days to help. More to come...

 

[Reverend Biker]

Seeing it in the noontime daylight made a huge difference. I saw an entire other path the water was taking down the firewall. The O2 sensor has icicles.

I also noticed the drains in the wiper trough must be clogged, it was half-full of melted snow today and dripping from a fastener down the firewall. It was landing on the fuel lines connected to the to the fuel rails. The are encased in an icicle about four inches around.

This is the icicle that gets wider as it reaches the ground. Its about six or more inches as it encases the CV boot before freezing to some ice in my driveway.

Before I noticed this, I had melted the ice on the manifold and dried the injectors. A coating of ice or water can cause the thin wires on the injectors to short in certain circumstances. 45 minutes with a heat gun and rags and still running like cr@p. I grabbed the flashlight and started searching for wires that might be grounding out and followed the trail of ice from the frame rail to the source. Tomorrow I will pull the cowl apart and clear the drains for a start. It is supposed to be in the 40s, so hope is on the horizon.

I was also able to determine how the mice are entering in the process. I will update that topic over coffee tomorrow.

 

[Steve8316]

A coating of ice or water can cause the thin wires on the injectors to short in certain circumstances.

IDK what circumstances you think those are, but ice can NEVER cause a short circuit on a 12V system. EVER. And regardless of the wire diameter, water on the insulation does nothing - it's called "insulation" for a reason. That's why it's still running badly - you haven't found or fixed the real problem. Ignore the ice & water - find the wiring damage. But heating & chipping ice off the harness can CAUSE damage, so you should stop that.

 

[Reverend Biker]

SOLVED:

I ran the Ex for a few minutes yesterday, and it was still running rough. I looked the entire bay over and found nothing. No chewed wires, no signs of rodent activity involving any of the wiring harness.

I knocked the icicles off the back of the engine, and left the hood open. By sunset last night, the thickness of the ice around the fuel lines melted to a thin coating and wasn't 5+ inches thick. The icicle on the CV boot was barely a coating on the outside of the boot this morning.

The fuel in the car is only the second tank after it sat on the dealer's lot for over six months. It is possible that the fuel injectors were frozen, but with water in the fuel, not frozen from the exterior. That or there was water in the fuel lines that froze. I believe that at least two injectors were affected. When it started yesterday it was at 500 rpm, and after running 10 or so seconds, it smoothed some and went up to 700 rpms. Still not great.

It was above freezing by the time I left for work at 6:45 am and we hit 39 degrees today. After six hours in the afternoon sun, it started up rough and smoothed out in a few seconds when I got home at 5 pm. Now it's idling like it was before I parked it on the hill.

Despite my initial thought, I was close; a frozen injector. It is more likely that the fuel had water and was frozen in the lines or clogging the nozzles in the injector. Taking a shakedown run to the convenience store in about 10 minutes, but it started and has been idling without a hiccup for the last fifteen minutes.