1994 Explorer XLT check engine light

[hyperlite875]

My check engine light came on about 1 week after buying my car, it hase 180,000 miles on it, any ideas about what it could be. I will take it in, but if there are common problems with this engine (4.0) with such high miles? Everything seems to run fine other then that annoying light. Ever since I got my car it seems like it has been luggy (not full amount of power) my moms mini van could kick my car. Any tips?

 

[Glacier991]

A check engine light really narrows the possibles down, to about 200. (being a smart ass, sorry) ... you'll need to pull the code to get any meaningful answer. Too many possibles.

 

[frstxplorer]

do you know if the cats. have been replaced or do the look like original when the go bad youll get a wicked loss of power and when you get on it itll start to sound like you got a potato in the exhaust pipe

 

[Positive Vibes]

Get the codes read. Some auto parts will do this for free. Once you have the codes, post them and we can help. We can't help much with out the codes.

 

[MrShorty]

You can also pull the codes yourself. You'll only need a paper clip (or other jumper wire). A verbose but effective set of instructions can be had at www.fordfuelinjection.com (though I don't like the layout of their code list). www.troublecodes.net/Ford has a good code list, though it's quite cryptic as far as instructions go. I also posted a supplementary explanation of the self-test layout here not too long ago (if it helps any).

 

[hyperlite875]

alright, I'll go get the codes and bring em' back, thanks