Blinking Check Enginge Light without Codes (2003 V8)

[Claus]

Most post advise to read the codes for blinking Check Engine lights. Yesterday on the way home occasionaly the engine ran rough and the check engine blinked. Not continuously just a few times in a row with a break of normality in between. By the time I got home as well as this moring the engine runs fine. I borrowed a code reader from the part store it didn't find any codes. Are there supposed to be a code with the blinking Check Engine light? What's going on?

Spark plug question: I pulled one sparkpug and that one look OK. But now I'm wondering about several things.
1) The plugs are really recessed in the engine block and some dirt and send accumulates down there. How do you clean this out so that the dirt doesn't get into the engine.
2) Is there a simple way to determine if the ignition coils on top of the spark plug are faulty and need to be replaced?
3) According to the service schedule the spark pugs don't need to be replaced until 100,000 miles for the first time. I'm at 46,000 miles. So how likely is it that the plugs need to be removed? The plug I pulled had the proper gap, was dry and looked OK.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

You may want to get a scanner that allows you to look for intermittent codes or 1-time codes. These codes do not set off the CEL, because it hasn't happened a 2nd time. CEL codes are a two cycle code, once it happens twice - a CEL pops up. At idle it runs fine, but when cruising along it kind of bucks, hesitates? Give us as much information as possible.

1) Blow them out with an air chuck or some type of compressed air.
2) To test an ignition coil, you will need to have a Multi-Meter and ohm them out. I am not sure exactly what the tolerance is, but a shop or dealership should be able to give you the numbers.
3) I hit 70K awhile back, and I replaced the plugs. The 100,000 mile plug does exist and sometimes happens, but you can gain MPG if you have good plugs in. 46K is a little premature for new plugs, but my dads jeep has around 101K on his plugs and its still going. Problem with leaving the plugs in so long, they can seize and can possibly strip the heads threads out.


Good luck
-Drew

 

[Jag]

A blinking light usually means a mis-fire. Had one on a Probe, turned out to be a bad plug wire....pull the plug wires and visually check the part of the wire that is down in the valve cover. My Probe had a cracked boot that was arching over against the side of the spark plug well.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

If it is possibly a plug wire, take a soapy/water mixture and spray the wires while it's running. If you hear a sparking/arcing then you need to replace the wires (and might as well do the plugs since you are there).

-Drew

EDIT - if you don't see any type of arcing, then pull the wires off and inspect the plugs and wires. Inside as well. I've seen boots arch and ground to the spark plug instead of going through the plug itself - and it was arching on the inside of the boot.

 

[Claus]

The scanner I have is a hand held one from AutoXray. It's set to Ford '02 OBD II since it doesn't list the '03 but I think that should be fine. After running the scan I did check the Trouble Codes and Pending Codes, which I assume are the intermittent codes. You think the AutoXray EZ-READ 1000 isn't sufficient to pull the codes?

Now that I am carrying the code reader with me and wait for the car to act up it's not happening. I hate these problems.

When you guys are talking about plug wires you are talking about cars without ignition coils, right? Since my engine has these ignition coils the wires are the regular wiring. No special spark plug wires.

 

[jimbo74]

no they are talking about regular old spark plug wires.... eventhough it has indiviual coil packs, they are still mounted somehwere and have the wires going to the sparkplugs... some vehicles use coil on the plug itself, but the fords dont

 

[Claus]

Well, the ignition coils are mounted right above the spark plug and a long boot goes down to the spark plug. At least for the 2003 V8.

I guess I should pull all the boots and inspect them. Maybe even to the soapy water trick on them.

 

[jimbo74]

ah ok then, sounds liek they use the coil on plug then, they didnt used to use those on any of the gen 1 or 2 explroers....

anywyas, i ran seafoam yesterday on my moms 96 and got a flashing cel... i ran the scanner and it said multiple misfires on all cylinders.....