Unrelated flashing O/D off and check engine light

[Yaucco]

Hey guys- I am new to the forum, and I know that you hear it all the time but this site is absolutely great. I've learned a lot just reading the posts...I just wish I knew as much as many of you out there.

However, I am having a couple problems that I would like your help on if possible. I have a 1995 XLT, which I have been driving for the past 3 years. It's about to top 90,000.

The first problem is the check engine light. My car has spent a lot of time on the highway; I live right outside of New York City and go to school in Wisconsin, over 1,000 miles and 19 hours away. My Explorer has made the trip 5 times (and will do it again in a few weeks.) When at home, we make trips to Canada (about 8 hour drives) occasionally and go to Vermont every single weekend during ski season (About 7 hours and 500 miles round trip). Always about 2-3 hours into these long drives the check engine light will come on. It really does not do anything, but scare the crap out of me. It usually will stay on for 5 minutes, off for 5, come back on, until the car is stopped for gas and rests, where it will not come back on for another couple hours. Sometimes, it will just stay on until the car is stopped. It almost always goes away when stopped. Ford could not find anything and told me that it meant nothing and to not worry about it, so I passed it off as nothing. Just wondering what you guys think...

Another problem that I was having a couple years ago is about 10% of the times I started my car, the O/D OFF light would flash, indicating a transmission problem I believe from what I have read off the board. The car would shift really hard and sometimes get stuck so that the car would rev, but would not move at all. It would usually go away after driving it for like 5-10 minutes (usually on the way to Ford), but would come back sometimes after I started the car about 10 times later. Ford found nothing, and the problem mysteriously vanished. Until last week, when I was making the New York to Wisconsin drive and stayed in Ohio overnight. When I woke up in the morning in the middle of nowhere, it happened. I pulled over and let the car rest for like 10 minutes and it was fine the next 500 mile leg of the trip, and hasn't happened since. Just wondering if you have any idea what is up.

Now that I have written a novel...I would love to hear your opinions if you have any idea what is going on.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Stephen]

Welcome to the site!

The Check Engine light is probably something simple like an O2 sensor, I had a problem with my light until I replaced the sensors with higher quality Bosch units, its never happened since. As for the O/D light, I know that mine was flashing when the transmission went bad, it also displayed the same poor shifting patterns as yours. It was a bad torque converter, I had the whole tranny rebuilt.

Hope someone else can help you better-

 

[Alec]

Have you had the tranny fluid changed in the past few years? If you haven't, it could be that your transmission clutch packs are worn, but the tranny still lives cause the clutch fibers are still circulating in the fluid. If you have had the tranny fluid replaced, and it still only happens intermittently, you should be fine for a while. Just beware that your tranny might just "take a dump" one day and refuse to work.

As for the CE light, if it's intermittent it's probably a sensor that's going bad like Stephen said. Likely culprits: TPS, O2, or air intake temp sensor.

Good luck!

 

[Yaucco]

Thanks for the help guys...

Do you know about how much it would cost to get the sensors replaced? Or should I just do nothing about it?

How often should the tranny fluid be changed? (I can't remember when it last was...I will have to look it up when I get home.) But if it was recently changed, I would like to get the tranny rebuilt under warranty (I have about 5,000 miles left.) Would Ford do that with the problem I am having, or does it totally have to die?

Thanks again.

 

[01EB5.0]

Hey! What school are you at? I live in Illinois and go to school in michigan. Anyway the check engine light is prolly just bad O2 sensors or something.
As for the tranny light, i wonder whent he last time your tranny filter was changed? My neighbor had a similar issue with his Chevy Astro van and he just replaced the filter and it was fine. I would wait till schools out, then replace the filter and see how it does...also the addition of a external tranny cooler would help prolong the life of the tranny. since your under wanentee still, next time th elight is flashing i would drive to your nearest ford dealer and leave the truck running so the light keeps flashing..thatway they can scan the problem and not tell you it's normal. My tranny got sick at 91,000 and i got a ford factory replacement. So far so good! I only have to make a 250 mile trip to school so it's not bad, but I do rack up quite a few miles (I'm at 119,000 now)
Good luck with your truck and if you want to try offroading, let me know..one time on your way home from school you could meet up with some of us other explorer guys for a little fun.
Anyway I'll talk to youlater

 

[Yaucco]

I go to the University of Wisconsin in Madison but I used to live in Glencoe (just north of Chicago)...I'm pretty sure St. Charles is a west burb, right? Where do you go offroading around there? So far my truck is totally stock, but after I make some money this summer I hope to change that.

The problem with the transmission is that Ford is about 15 minutes from my house, and when it happens, I ALWAYS try to get there right away. However, the problem always vanishes by the time I get there. It was still happening once though and I made the guys (who knew me well from running up there every other day) get in the car and see that I wasn't crazy...they saw everything I was talking about, but then said they didn't find anything on the code reader and then it wasn't doing it so they said they could not do anything for me. I will definately check out all those things you guys told me to look at when I get home...hopefully that will solve everything. I would love for the tranny to die now though if it's going to soon so i don't have to pay...

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[01EB5.0]

The place I go offroading is Silver Lake dunes in Michigan. Stock vehicles do fine there. Last time i was there I even saw a older model Chevy Cavalier there offroading. As long as you have 4x4 your set. There are also other places in Indiana and Wisconsin but I haven't been to those yet. The dunes is located right on the shores of Lake Michigan about 2 hours north of the state line. Dead Link Removed

Thats some pictures from the last run we took last weekend.
If your interested, let me know. Also good luck with your tranny.