Please HELP! Cylinder 2 misfiring in 97 V6 Explorer

[Bughracing]

I worked on the 97 1/2 V6 4.0L SOHC Explorer of an elderly neighbor of mine about a year ago. At that time I changed the sparkplugs, wires, fuel filter, and PVC valve. It has run great according to her for the last year. She has put around 8,500 - 9,000 miles on it since then. She was out garage sale shopping today and it started running rough and then the check engine light came on. She called me up and I ran the OBDII scanner on it and I got a code 302, cylinder #2 misfiring. I unplugged the spark plug wire at the spark plug and it sparked great when started so I know it isn't a problem with the wire. I am going to change the #2 spark plug for her tomorrow but do you think that is what it is? Any other ideas as to what it could be? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Jon

 

[Alec]

change the plug and see what happens. sometimes an engine will just hiccup once and never do it again. I'd see if it is a recurring problem before you go chasing stuff. But one plug is cheap and easy.

 

[Bughracing]

Well I am definitely going to do that tomorrow. I was just hoping that no one would say that is a common problem and that their might be a larger problem.

 

[Alec]

mine misfires every once in a while of course, my stock computer thinks it's gotten a frontal lobotomy.....

 

[Bughracing]

Well this motor is about as stock as the word stock can be. It is driven by an 80 year old woman so she probably has only seen the motor once or twice!

 

[Bughracing]

Ok guys, that didn't do it. I changed the spark plug and it is still doing the same thing. It is still getting the #302 OBDII code for cylinder 2 misfiring. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
Jon

 

[VOATMJ1]

Does she have a ThrottleBody or Multiport injection? If the latter, the #2 fuel injecter may not be firing (injecting) when it is suppose to be, or firing correctly.

I was watching a car repair show on cable recently, and they had an ODBII vehicle, with the same exact problem that you are decsribing, one cylinder was misfiring.

They did the usual things, changed the plug, wires, and even cleaned the injectors, cleared the computer code, but it came back.

They then changed that one fuel injector on the misfiring cylinder....that was the problem. If all else fails, look into that!!

 

[Bughracing]

Well that's not good. I am just doing this as a favor to her. I guess I will just tell her to take it in to Ford. I really don't have time to take off the upper intake and everything just to see if that one injector is bad. Do they use the normal 19lb injectors for that motor or is it something different?

 

[VOATMJ1]

If the vehicle is not under warranty, I would stay away from the dealer, they may see this as an opportunity, to take her to the cleaners, being elderly and all.

I'm not saying that all dealers will do that, but if there is a reputable independant repair shop, have her go there, or go with her to the dealer/repair shop, so they will not take advantage or her.

It's nice that she has someone like you to call, most elderly people do not!

Anyone else out there have any ideas as to what to try before taking the vehicle in?

 

[Bughracing]

Well what I told her to do is to just take it into Ford and have them do a scan on it and just tell her what the problem is, but to not fix anything. Then she is going to get me to fix it or take it to a shop if it will take a while to fix it. Any other ideas though? With 80,000 miles on it, could her cats or muffler be clogged?

 

[Alec]

might be the manifold itself that isn't on tight enough.

 

[slow-demon]

Do take it to your ford dealer. If it indeed is the #2 cyl misfiring, then they can check the injector flow with one of their high tech machines. Taking it to the dealer is usually the better thing to do. They are more experienced with their line of cars (FORDS). And they have the latest Ford diagnostic machines, which in your case they will probably use a WDS machine. For example, had this one customer who had a 97 cougar. Ever since she owned it (bought it used) is had a vibration or shudder at around 40-50 mph. She took it to many independant shops and none over a 3year span could fix it. She spent around a 1000 dollars. Finally she decided to live with the vibes. She was afraid to take it to the dealer because they were expensive. I met here last month and by just listeneing to her explain the symtoms I already knew what the problem was. She spent only $40 in parts and guess what, the shuddering and vibrations is gone. She is a happy lady. Simple as that.

 

[97emerald]

I also recommend the dealer. It could be the intake gaskets which has a TSB on this problem.

 

[Bughracing]

Ok, she took it into the dealer today and they told her that the plugs and wires were bad which bs to me. I checked out all of the wires a couple of days ago and replaced the plug that might have been bad. They wanted $365 for them to change the plugs and wires for her. I am going to be out on business for the next two weeks so I told her to just forget the dealership and take it to a shop here that I know.

 

[VOATMJ1]

See guys, that is why I recommended that she NOT take it to the dealer. $365.00 for plugs and wires??!! DAMN!!

This is what I was afraid of. They seen her coming.

 

[Robert]

$24 for Motorcraft plugs, $40 for wires, $301 for labor? Ouch they must be planning on spending at least 4 hours on it using my local Ford dealers rates. I can do it in half that, I would hope Ford could do it even quicker.