2013 Explorer Engine Light during acceleration

[Baron164]

My wife has reported that on her way to work this morning the engine light on her 2013 Explorer came on while she was accelerating onto the highway. However once she got into the city and slowed down the light went off. Wondering if anyone has had this kind of issue occur?

I'm wondering if it was possible an O2/exhaust sensor going bad and it tripped during heavy acceleration and once she slowed down it fell back into acceptable limits. Of course that's the optimistic viewpoint, my other concern is that it's something more serious.

The only other issue she has reported recently is some light squealing during starting the motor which I believe is the serpentine belt and I haven't had a chance to replace it yet.

Her Explorer has the V6 and AWD.

 

[peterk9]

Just wanted to say 'Welcome to the Forum'.
Ask her to check to see if it does it again on the way home and if it can be easily replicated by accelerating. I'm guessing that it may also have stored an error code that can be retrieved that might help pinpoint the problem. Good luck.

Peter

 

[Baron164]

Thanks
Yeah I told her to try and reproduce the problem on the way home. First step in fixing the problem is reproducing it. I figured I'll take it by the part store tonight and see if they can pull a code.

 

[613GT500]

Next step would be to purchase a low cost bluetooth OBD reader and download an app such as torque for your smartphone and see if any codes can be read.

 

[Baron164]

Yeah, I've looked at getting one of those before. Might finally have a good reason to get one.

 

[Baron164]

Well the light came on again today and stayed on this time. Took it down to the part store and they pulled code P0305. So it appears I'm getting a Cylinder 5 misfire. This has the 3.5 V6 and the fire order is 1-4-2-5-3-6 so I'm pretty sure the center front cylinder is #5. I should still be under the powertrain warranty so I'm gonna call the dealer in the morning to make sure this would be covered. If not I'm gonna pull the coil and plug and check them over.

 

[Baron164]

Well the dealer told me this morning that coils are not covered under the powertrain warranty so I went and picked one up. I'm going to install it on my lunch break and see how that goes. Hopefully it's just the coil and replace it will be the end of this for awhile.

 

[Baron164]

Well appears to have been the coil. I replaced it, disconnected the battery to reset the check engine light and took for a drive and no errors. So hopefully it was just the coil and I won't have any issues for awhile.