Something strange happenned today........

[Fedman]

I was driving my 03 5 spd 3.0 Ranger down the highway and all of a sudden it started to buck and felt like it was going to shake itself apart. I immediately backed off the throttle and headed for the shoulder and it quit and idled as smooth as ever. So I threw on the blinker and headed back out into traffic accelerating as briskly as possible. Tach it up to 3k in second gear and it starts doing it again. I backed off and upshifted to third and it smoothed right out until I hit 3k again. I've driven this baby 139k and never had this happen before. I know there's a rev limiter on Automatics that kicks in at 3k when they are in neutral or park, but not so on a stick. MAF is clean, air filter is new, plugs and wires at 130k. Thinking fuel delivery problem, never changed filter since new. Looking for some direction guys, what do you think?

 

[ntex]

FUEL FILTER i think, cheap fix.

 

[swshawaii]

Fuel filter is never a bad idea, especially if it's over 30k. Before changing ANY parts, scan for trouble codes, check engine light or not.

OBD-II Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs)
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228242

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Good advice on changing the fuel filter as a first step.

If no codes, and no joy from a new filter, I'd suspect the
fuel pump itself being bad. My 04 Ranger had a bad pump
at only 60K miles, and after taking it apart found the brushes
had worn into the commutator. This seems to be common
on this range of model years, so I suspect Ford had a batch
of faulty pump motors during this time...