Service Engine light on, then broke down!

[Mason_Storm]

I don't want to get into the history of my '02 XLT 4x4 but suffice it to say it was the worst vehicle purchase I've ever made. It's been quite a lemon.

The service engine light came on while driving saturday afternoon. I immediately drove to Auto Zone to have the codes pulled. they said it was a bad sensor, bank 2 sensor 1. The next day my 'Check Gauge' light came on indicating I was low on gas. Within 2 miles the truck died. It restarted and drove for about 1 mile before dying again. Again it restarted and went about 2 miles before finally succumbing. Usually you can go about 25 miles after the low fuel gage lights but I don't trust those. I had it towed home and called Ford to get a price on replacing the bad sensor and the service guy said "80% of the time it's not the sensor that's bad, it's something else and you need to bring it in for a correct diagnosis."

I was going to have a friend help me change the O2 sensor but now I'm not sure what to do.

 

[piperRonnie]

Just my $.02: could be the alternator. A bad one will throw all of the gages loopy.
Happened to my 2002 ex.

 

[Donner]

3rd gen 02 problems... sorry to hear about it, but...

I don't want to get into the history of my '02 XLT 4x4 but suffice it to say it was the worst vehicle purchase I've ever made. It's been quite a lemon.

The service engine light came on while driving saturday afternoon. I immediately drove to Auto Zone to have the codes pulled. they said it was a bad sensor, bank 2 sensor 1. The next day my 'Check Gauge' light came on indicating I was low on gas. Within 2 miles the truck died. It restarted and drove for about 1 mile before dying again. Again it restarted and went about 2 miles before finally succumbing. Usually you can go about 25 miles after the low fuel gage lights but I don't trust those. I had it towed home and called Ford to get a price on replacing the bad sensor and the service guy said "80% of the time it's not the sensor that's bad, it's something else and you need to bring it in for a correct diagnosis."

I was going to have a friend help me change the O2 sensor but now I'm not sure what to do.

You have a few options... the first would be to do what Ford says and bring it in for service; from there, you can choose to keep it, sell it, burn it (I don't endorse).

And w/o the history, it's tough to know if this is all defect or other issues.

Good luck.

 

[aldive]

O2 sensor codes are almost always triggered by something upstream of them.

Good luck in resolving your problem(s).