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2000 Explorer Gas Mileage - surprise Fix

canthony15

Member
Joined
July 17, 2006
Messages
13
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0
City, State
Westminster, CO
Year, Model & Trim Level
'00 AWD
I have received help from this forum from time to time so I thought I would share this. My wife and I were driving around in my 2000 Explorer 5.0 AWD this past weekend and we were about 30 miles from home on a country road when the vehicle started missing badly. The check-engine light came on and I pulled onto the shoulder. I popped the hood and looked around and finally noticed that the number 4 spark plug wire didn't seem to be pushed on the plug. When I stuck my hand down there the wire just flopped loose. I burned myself pretty good trying to get it back on. Eventually it was back on and we took off but it was still sounding bad, running bad, and smelling super rich. I managed to get it to an auto parts store in a nearby town and read the codes. I had a P353 and P304 and P307 and a couple more. The misfires were on a single coil pack so I disconnected the wire harness from the pack and then plugged it back in. She started up and ran smooth as silk. In fact it was so smooth that I realized that it had been running a tiny bit rough. Here is some history (followed by my new gas mileage figure):

I bought the car with 30K on it from a leasing company about 9 years ago. We have a tent trailer and I wanted to tow it with the Explorer. When I finally got set up for towing, we discovered that towing the trailer up over the continental divide, the engine would stall in a weird way and I would have to sit for 5 minutes and then it would run good for another hour. When this happened, the car would idle great but stall if you pressed the gas pedal. There were no codes. This happened again while driving in town the following summer when it got up to 101 degrees outside. I never could figure it out but we stopped towing with it. I eventually started using it to drive to work and back and I still do, 25 miles each way every day. The gas mileage varied between 14 and 17. About 2 months ago, I changed the plugs. I put in standard resistor plugs to replace the platinums I had in there. The mileage jumped up to a solid and repeatable 17.

Finally we get to the point. I replaced the coil pack, even though it was probably a dirty contact in the connector, and I drove to work this morning. I filled up before I left and when I got there the gas gauge was still on full (25 miles). I then drove down into a nearby town at lunch and put on another 24 miles. It was still on full. I then drove home. By the time I got home, the needle was off of full by a little bit. I was curious so I went back to the gas station and filled up. I had 74 miles on it and it took 3.4 gallons. That is nearly 22 miles per gallon. Unheard of for my Explorer. I now suspect that this coil pack was marginal when I got the vehicle and I might even try towing again next summer.

Hopefully someone else will benefit from this experience. I am hoping that this new mileage figure holds up over time. If not, I will post again and let you know.

Tony
 






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