What a week...

[jarettp]

Car hit's 69k miles and starts to fall apart it seems. Replaced all the tires, battery died, and I have a couple codes being thrown by the engine. Not to mention the squeaking sound I posted in a separate thread. Eitherway though, has anyone here had any experience with these two codes?

P219B Bank 2 Air-Fuel Ratio Imbalance
P0306 Cylinder 6 Misfire Detected

I had Pep Boys look it over while they were changing my tires and they said I had to take it to a Ford Dealership. Unfortunately when I changed my battery the codes cleared so I'm waiting for them to come back now. Any advice would be appreciated! I've already bought some Cataclean that I plan on putting in the tank once I burn off some more gas. Thinking that may help the first code. I plan to fill up on Premium too afterwards.

2014 Explorer Limited V6 AWD No tow package

 

[blwnsmoke]

Based on air/fuel issue and misfire, I'm thinking injector issue on cylinder #6?

 

[chapsdeva]

Tires and battery are normal wear items, although only 3 years is not that long for a battery. Definitely need to get those codes read once they come back...could be something simple hopefully. Don't waste your money buying premium fuel as it does no good for your Explorer compared to 87 octane that the owners manual calls for.

 

[1995E]

For my cylinder 6 misfire, I would have crazy misfires at WoT. I changed the spark plugs, and it fixed if for me. For fuel injectors, I just used fuel injector cleaner and it seem to have worked fine for me.

 

[dont slow down]

A fuel/air mixture issue could be a dirty mass air flow sensor. A little cleaner could help that. I run a K&N filter in my EX and this last time I cleaned it I put a little too much oil on the filter and it dirtied the MAF sensor to the point it through a code. They are pretty easy to clean, I talked my wife through it over facetime because she was out of town at the time. Lol

 

[XLT16]

Mass air flow sensor can create a lot of issues. I had supercharged sports car that the automatic transmission used to act up when the MAF got dirty, extremely hard downshifts. Weird. The logic of it was the MAF would screw up the conditions being seen by the engine computer and this chip would interpret those conditions send changes to the transmission to accommodate. Used to have to clean it with contact cleaner every few months. When the supercharger was added a K&N oil charged air filter was also used to give the engine better intake, that created the issue with the MAF. You couldn't see any dirt or oil but it was there, clean it and everything went back to normal. Plugs go bad as well, cheap fix.

 

[peterk9]

.........Don't waste your money buying premium fuel as it does no good for your Explorer compared to 87 octane that the owners manual calls for.

Looks like you're singing from the same hymn book that I was. After using 89 for a while I jumped to 91 and found that my MPG has gone up slightly although it doesn't seem to off set the extra cost. I'm going to run that grade for a longer period to check it out especially now that the colder months are here and I can compare it to when I was using 87 last Winter. I post all my fill ups on Fuelly.com to make it easy to track.

Peter

 

[PapaGary]

From the 2017 Explorer Owner's Manual:

For best overall vehicle and engine
performance, premium fuel with an octane
rating of 91 or higher is recommended. The
performance gained by using premium fuel
is most noticeable in hot weather as well
as other conditions, for example when
towing a trailer. See Towing (page 238).

This summer, when towing our travel trailer, we found this to be true.

 

[jarettp]

Tires and battery are normal wear items, although only 3 years is not that long for a battery. Definitely need to get those codes read once they come back...could be something simple hopefully. Don't waste your money buying premium fuel as it does no good for your Explorer compared to 87 octane that the owners manual calls for.

The reason I'm considering premium is a lot of them have additives to help clean the engine. Has nothing to do with performance.

 

[jarettp]

A fuel/air mixture issue could be a dirty mass air flow sensor. A little cleaner could help that. I run a K&N filter in my EX and this last time I cleaned it I put a little too much oil on the filter and it dirtied the MAF sensor to the point it through a code. They are pretty easy to clean, I talked my wife through it over facetime because she was out of town at the time. Lol

Any good tutorials on cleaning the MAF sensor?

 

[Nasty]

The reason I'm considering premium is a lot of them have additives to help clean the engine. Has nothing to do with performance.

Just use Top Tier branded stations.

 

[1995E]

Just use Top Tier branded stations.

Honestly, there's a law already for gas stations to put a certain level of detergent in the gasoline.

To my knowledge, only Shell markets their premium as different with extra detergent. I'm pretty sure if you use some Techron once in a while, you'll be fine.

Unless if you will benefit from the extra octane, there's really no point in using anything other than regular.

 

[jarettp]

Honestly, there's a law already for gas stations to put a certain level of detergent in the gasoline.

To my knowledge, only Shell markets their premium as different with extra detergent. I'm pretty sure if you use some Techron once in a while, you'll be fine.

Unless if you will benefit from the extra octane, there's really no point in using anything other than regular.

Thanks for the heads up. Also, I just cleaned the MAF Sensor. Haven't really driven the car around yet but I still have the check engine light on and the car seems to be idling rough just like it was prior. I'm going to try the engine cleaner next. If that doesn't work I'll consider changing the spark plugs or just taking it to the dealership.

 

[jarettp]

I have 70k miles btw

 

[peterk9]

Honestly, there's a law already for gas stations to put a certain level of detergent in the gasoline.

To my knowledge, only Shell markets their premium as different with extra detergent. I'm pretty sure if you use some Techron once in a while, you'll be fine.

Unless if you will benefit from the extra octane, there's really no point in using anything other than regular.

I use Petro-Canada gasoline exclusively and all 4 levels of octane, 87, 89, 91 and 94, contain a detergent called Tactrol which was invented by them and only available in their gas. This is what their site says; "Tactrol acts as a detergent that helps prevent the buildup of harmful deposits. Tactrol, which contains nitrogen, is used in all of our grades of gasoline at varying levels. Our customers can choose the cleaning power they need. We have RegularClean, PlusClean, SuperClean and Ultra 94."
Background info: Suncor (Sunoco) and Petro-Canada merged in 2009 with Suncor holding 60% of the merged company.

Peter

 

[Tap1981]

P

Car hit's 69k miles and starts to fall apart it seems. Replaced all the tires, battery died, and I have a couple codes being thrown by the engine. Not to mention the squeaking sound I posted in a separate thread. Eitherway though, has anyone here had any experience with these two codes?

P219B Bank 2 Air-Fuel Ratio Imbalance
P0306 Cylinder 6 Misfire Detected

I had Pep Boys look it over while they were changing my tires and they said I had to take it to a Ford Dealership. Unfortunately when I changed my battery the codes cleared so I'm waiting for them to come back now. Any advice would be appreciated! I've already bought some Cataclean that I plan on putting in the tank once I burn off some more gas. Thinking that may help the first code. I plan to fill up on Premium too afterwards.

2014 Explorer Limited V6 AWD No tow package

possibly an o2 sensor and plugs and wires are an maintenance items remember the fuels these days suck.

 

[Zodiac]

Honestly, there's a law already for gas stations to put a certain level of detergent in the gasoline.

To my knowledge, only Shell markets their premium as different with extra detergent. I'm pretty sure if you use some Techron once in a while, you'll be fine.

Unless if you will benefit from the extra octane, there's really no point in using anything other than regular.

I'm not sure if the minimum amount of detergent is the best though.

My last car required premium fuel and I've always stuck with Shell (with Chevron on a rare occasion) from the first day of owning it.

One day I was running low and decided to stop at a Valero to fill my tank, I still put in premium but as soon as I turned the key to turn the engine it sputtered a bit, the drop in performance was also noticeable. I drove the car around to burn as much fuel as I could and filled it back up with Shell and it went back to normal.

This was the one and only time I have done that and I still stick with Shell fuel, in my area there is little to no difference between Shell/Chevron/other stations so its not that big of a difference in cost for peace of mind.

 

[Sgt1411]

I use Petro-Canada gasoline exclusively and all 4 levels of octane, 87, 89, 91 and 94, contain a detergent called Tactrol which was invented by them and only available in their gas. This is what their site says; "Tactrol acts as a detergent that helps prevent the buildup of harmful deposits. Tactrol, which contains nitrogen, is used in all of our grades of gasoline at varying levels. Our customers can choose the cleaning power they need. We have RegularClean, PlusClean, SuperClean and Ultra 94."
Background info: Suncor (Sunoco) and Petro-Canada merged in 2009 with Suncor holding 60% of the merged company.

Peter

That's interesting because out west in the land of bike lanes and corrupt hippy mayors we can only get 94 at Chevron, PETRO-CAN is 91 max.

 

[peterk9]

That's interesting because out west in the land of bike lanes and corrupt hippy mayors we can only get 94 at Chevron, PETRO-CAN is 91 max.

The Petro-Can I fill up at also has 91 as the top octane. However, the Petro-Can station that was converted from being Sunoco, has 94.