Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Lack Of Power Showing Up Pulling Loads At Highway Speed
Sep 24, 2014
My 2000, F150, 4X4, 4.6V8, five speed manual idles great and sounds great and throwing no codes. It doesn't have a lot of zip, but it really never has, at least since I bought it at almost 60K miles.
I've never towed much of anything with it until recently. I started towing a 6 1/2' X 10' trailer with a 1,600 pound side by side or a 1,300 pound mower with a large grass collector. Both of these loads have lots of wind resistance.
The lack of power is REALLY showing up pulling these loads at highway speed. Sometimes, even on pretty flat ground, the cruise control will hold the throttle on the floor at 60 or 65 MPH and it can't pick up speed.
I have maintained the truck well, but there is something amiss. It is due a fuel filter, so I will change that. I've never replaced the O2 sensors, so I'm considering replacing the front ones.
I am thinking about using a vacuum gauge to see if I can detect plugged cats. As I recall, there are two on each bank. I have a scanner, so I was thinking about monitoring front and rear O2 sensors and see if I can get the 100 degree difference that indicates a properly functioning converter.
I'm thinking of cleaning the throttle body.
Something else that is odd about this truck. Being a stick shift, it does not want to go all the way back down to idle speed unless the vehicle is stopped. For illustration of what I'm saying, you can kick the transmission in neutral and coast, and it will stay above idle speed until the vehicle stops, THEN it will idle down normally. I have always thought that this might be because so few manual transmission trucks were built that this is something in the chip for an automatic that they didn't take out for the manual.
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I have a '97 4.6L 4x4. I've had a few issues recently and am at wits end.
Symptoms: while pulling a boat at highway speed, the engine engine just died. After waiting about 20 minutes for a buddy to show up with a tow rope, it started up and ran fine...until I got home (10 miles). I parked and after approx 5 minutes of idling it died again. No CEL, and found no codes when scanned. 15 minutes pass, it fires up and works fine.
The next day, I hook the boat up again, dive to the lake, go fishing, drive home. Everything was fine. I unhook the boat and drive to work. Half way there my voltage gauge starts falling and 5 miles later all of my gauges end electric stuff dies. I drive two more miles to work and strange beep starts coming from under the dash on the passenger side (I think). After my 12 hour shift it starts and I start my 10 mile commute. Half way through I lose electrical power again but make it home. Now it doesn't have the juice to turn over.
Are these problems related, and what are the possible causes and cures? On an unrelated note, what's the easiest way to replace a rear leaf spring shackle?
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While pulling onto the highway and pulling pretty hard lost engine power all boost then engine truned off. Top of engine is covered in oil..... What happened?
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I have a 2003, 4.6 F-150 with 201,500 miles
I am having some A/C issues. It's just too hot out there.
#1 The truck has a lack of power when I have the A/C on. It feels like it wants to stall out in the lower RPM's. I loose power when I go 65mph+. The truck actually stalled on me yesterday in the parking lot. I turned off the A/C and it ran fine.
#2 I have to go over a 5000ft pass daily, I turn off the A/C when I go over it. Below the pass, the A/C doesn't work well and it's not as cold. But when I get over the pass, the A/C turns very cold. The pass is like a 3-4 mile stretch.
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I am working on a 97 4.6 with 146k for a friend. It idles rough and seems to lack power (then again a 4.6 lacks power )
Has New:
plugs
wires
coil packs
fuel filter
sea foam intake
sea foam fuel
I have checked:
proper egr function
vacuum leaks
cleaned IAC
steady 17-18 in vac
clean air filter
cats do not seem to be getting too hot.
no codes
KOEO test ok
KOER test ok
The plugs worked some. Dirty MAF, clogged cats??
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I just bought a 2000 expedition 4.6 EB.. Just like an f150 same principles apply. Here's the issue, it has 284k miles. I realize its probably just tired and worn out but it just doesn't have any torque it seems. If you punch it above 60 it barely creeps up the speedo, my 00 f150 4wd with the same engine about same mileage was way stronger. My only code currently is P1151 dealing with the o2. Plugs are new coils and most all else is probably old. Just wondering if something is wrong and not throwing code or if its just a tired engine in a heavy vehicle?
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I have a 2001, 2wd, XLT, Super Crew with 4.6L and 180000Kms. I am the 2nd owner and have owned it for roughly 6 years. Since owning it I have towed the following: a 1500 Boat, 1000lb full utility trailer, a 2700lb boat, and most recently (Last summer) a 3500lb dry weight/4000lb full 22 foot camper trailer. None of these items ever caused me any problems til mis summer with the camper.
I have always got check engine lights for the stupid coil packs. It seems like I would replace one and a different one would go. I was camping one weekend a short hour distance from my home when I pulled onto the main highway and began to accelerate up to highway speed but it was feeling sluggish picking up to 100kph. When I merged onto the highway it was not a flat piece of ground and was a small grade of a hill, but nothing big. Before getting to the top I started to hear a strange noise, almost like a rattling, and the check engine light started to flash. After breaching the hill, it picked up speed, the light went out, and everything seemed fine.
This happened twice last summer with no other problems. At the end of the summer I once again had a check engine come on...I had blown out a plug, had it fixed and replaced 2 more COPs but still had codes showing for CC, M, F, O, OH, C, E and EV. My reader also said Freeze Frame, and MIL on. I had the truck in in Nov/Dec for an emissions test and it was given a conditional pass due to codes reading but no Check Engine light at this time.
I want to keep this truck...I will be towing the camper again, buit I'm considering getting a different truck. As it is I know I already have to have air bags installed in the rear to level out the load when towing. Hopefully that will cut back on some of the acceleration drag. At present time I have a check engine on...I'll check it again and post what its reading but most likely the same stuff.
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My truck is a 2002 F-150 4.2l standard trans. I noticed it was lacking a little power one day and the next day a little more so,Then the third day I was heading out to the Doctor (50 miles away) I noticed the truck was slowly and gradually getting worse to where it was hard to even do the speed limit on the highway and the light started blinking so I headed straight to the nearest Advance and had them pull the codes and it gave us 172 bank 1 too rich and 174 bank 2 too lean I replaced the two top o2 sensors (advance sold me)same thing....... plugs, wires, coil, air and fuel filters are all new... checked the PCV hoses all look good, I'm a cancer patient and need my truck for Dr's and treatments and no money to randomly buy parts, I have seen people pointing to intake gaskets and isolator bolts... Does this motor have a track record of this being a common problem?
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i have a 1997 f150 2wd and it has a 4.6 litre v8, it runs good but it seems to have no power when pulling a trailer anymore, it has 321,465 miles on it, original motor and transmission, it uses about a half a quart of oil every 2500 to 2800 miles between oil changes, the trailer i pull is just a small car trailer i have always pulled it with the truck, what could be causing it to lose power?
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2002 F-250 tries to die when I shift from drive to reverse. Usually first 10-15 minutes after starting. After it has gone a few miles I haven't noticed it. Seems to be getting worse but just really started a few weeks ago. I don't drive it everyday so it has been a while.
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I have recently picked up an older F350 2WD 7.3 DRW Lariat. the price was right higher miles but hey it is a 7.3, overall in very good shape.
So the issue at hand is the truck runs great most of the time and puttering around at city speeds you would never know there is any issue;
Get the truck out on the highway set the cruse at 70 to 72 and if you hit a rise in the road or other reason to slightly accelerate the truck chugs and bucks. For lack of a better description it goes chug chug chug, if you accelerate harder to downshift it goes away or if you back off the throttle it goes away. This happens with cruse on or off, a steady foot on the pedal will cause this as well.
I have also noticed that when you let off the throttle the sound the truck makes de-fueling is just very different and "off" sounding . Not sure how to describe it but it sounds funky ... clearly not right when compared to other 7.3 or my 6.0 truck.
What I have done, :
1. Had the truck scanned with an AE and a snap-on scanner both show no codes ran injector tests no contribution errors, not even in # 8.
2. Changed fuel filter
3. Changed Oil and Filters ( tried both full synthetic Rotella and Dino oil looking for a difference )
4. Cleaned out the fuel filter housing just in case.
5. Confirmed injector O-Rings are not leaking
This feels like a fuel issue, my next thought was start looking at fuel pressure under load at speed to see if there was a drop when this is happening ?
Is there a way to test fuel pumps in this truck ? Maybe a clogged pick-up screen ? Where do I start looking next ? I have reasonable mechanical skills but don't know this motor very well, this doesn't seem like a CPS issue..
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My new XE Vue 4cyl 164hp engine seems to struggle in highway situations. The 4 speed engine seem late in shifting from 4th gear to 3rd when asking for more speed as in a passing situation.
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Been barely driving my super duty due to it having a multitude of issues. So working on getting this thing back to some semblance of running decently and it has been smoking whitish blue, oil smoke out the exhaust. Not constantly, intermittently as far as I can tell.
If I drive it at highway speeds for 5-10 minutes then slow down it will smoke for about 10-15 seconds pretty heavily. Yesterday I got off the beltway after running for 15 minutes, it didn't seem to be smoking, but about 1 mile to 1 and half miles later, pulled into a convenience store and it was like I was spraying for mosquitoes for about 20 seconds then cleared up.
Truck seems to be running strong. Turbo doesn't seem to have any play side to side or in and out(according to Baltimore Performance Diesel who I don't necessarily trust at all [ I will explain my reasoning on that some other time, but let's just say, one of the reasons involves a rear main seal diagnosis... I digress] but I assume they are correct on that, I haven't looked myself. So what are some other possible answers, rings I would think would be fairly constant but I could be wrong there.
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I have a 1997 Oldsmobile 88 (174K miles, owned only by my father-in-law and then me) with which I am experiencing a hesitation problem from time to time at highway speed. My mechanic has taken the car on several highway test drives throughout the last two days, and he has been unable to reproduce the problem. Furthermore, he has done a full diagnostic test and found no problems with the fuel system, ignition system, or anything else.
Here are the conditions under which the problem occurs:
---Attempting to accelerate gradually at highway speed (usually from 50-60 mph), but WITHOUT pushing the gas pedal down so far as to cause the transmission to downshift
---Engine fully warmed up (temp gauge at 200 F or just below)
---Occurs more often when I have been driving for at least 1-2 hours
The condition is as follows:
---Car lurches/surges noticeably and does not accelerate
---Speedometer needle reflects the lurching by fluctuating up and down about 1 to 2 mph
---Accelerates well if I step down hard enough to cause the transmission to downshift, or stops surging if I lift off the gas pedal
---NO Check Engine light at any time
Some history on the car and corrective actions taken:
---June 2009: My mother-in-law was driving the car about 6 hours into our trip and it consistently hesitated between 50 and 55 mph with the Check Engine light on for the last 30 miles or so of our trip. The next day, we took the car to the dealer where my in-laws had their cars serviced (note the past tense here), where they told us that "there's probably something wrong inside the transmission" and suggested that we replace the transmission with a new one. This transmission is the second new one the car has had (replaced the first time at 95K miles), meaning that this transmission had less than 80K miles at the time. We took the car to a local shop at the referral of a friend, and this mechanic suggested we try flushing the transmission fluid and replacing the filter to see if that would fix the problem before we started talking about replacing the whole transmission. This worked, and we were glad that we did not have to get rid of the car. Did not notice any more problems with this for over a year.
---May 2010: Experienced engine misfire, had spark plug wires replaced. Problem solved.
---March 2011: First noticed my current problem. Had fuel filter replaced (it was probably a little overdue) and had the mechanics do a fuel system cleaning.
---April 2011: Problem still occurs.
---Had throttle body thoroughly cleaned, which fixed a slight sticking in the gas pedal.
---Replaced spark plugs myself. Car running more smoothly overall, but the hesitation still occurs.
---Inspected all three ignition coil packs myself. Top coil pack had some rust on the poles, which caused the resistance to measure as zero. Cleaned most of the rust off the poles, after which all three packs bench tested at 6.23 (with 20000 ohm setting on multimeter). Car runs even more smoothly overall, but hesitation persists.
At this point, my mechanic and I are both stumped as to what could be causing the hesitation problem. My only thought right now is to try replacing the one coil pack that had rust on it, since a pack with a fault I can see may have others inside that I can't see, and maybe something like this is flaking out on an intermittent basis.
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On my '03 Santa Fe 2.7, this has happened twice, with 500 or so uneventful miles in between. At highway speed, it just all of a sudden loses power and will only go about 50 mph with accelerator to the floor. When you stop & put in neutral, it only revs to about 3000 rpm, with pedal to the floor -yet idles fine. Then when you shut it down, wait a few minutes & start it back up, it's fine. Is this a fuel problem or what?
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Yesterday, i bumped into the curb as I got home, and today when I went to work the car is pulling very hard to the right, and makes a squeeling sound when I get up to speed. The ball joint looks bad, but can that cause this problem?
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My issue I'm having - 2002 F350 7.3L has an 8 inch bds lift with 37/13.50 tires. I realize these tires are big but... while driving 100kms/hr or 60 miles per hour and I hit the gas the truck barely wants to move (without pulling a load). Thought maybe a turbo but I have no mechanical skills so here I am!
2nd issue, there's a bullydog chip in that truck when I bought it. he said he always ran it on extreme. I found it puffs way to much black when on extreme and on performance it seems a lot better so that's where I have it?.
3rd issue, the transmission gauge on the dash goes into red when climbing up hills ( I live in the rocky mountains so a lot!) but the bullydog chip says the tranny is only at its hottest 140C? I don't believe that's to hot but I do believe my truck is derating a little while the tranny gauge on the dash is in the red? is there any quick fixes out there for these issues.
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I have a 2003 with 150k miles. My 6.0 has black smoke and can barely crawl up a hill. Dealership is 30 days out for an appt. Air filter, oil change, alternator, and batteries are new. I removed the EGR valve and cleaned, but the valve seat is not perfect. I can see 20 to 30 mil gap around half of the seat. Is this ok or will that little gap cause this?
Hoses all look good. No alarm lights. I have no diagnostic tool but I can use a meter well. It did have an airbag light but I found the fuse missing and replaced it. The air filter alarm switch fell apart but I bypassed it till I get new part. No alarm lights now.
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Long story short, when going up hill or any incline for the matter it feels like it's struggling and lugging, blowing carbon everywhere. It's an automatic so I yeah can downshift sometimes but even turning overdrive off doesn't work in a lot situations. My EGTs are way too high and I'm not about to tow my project car to OKC unless I get this figured out. I live around Salt Lake City so towing can be hard up surrounding passes. Just cruising to park city at 70mph on I80 up a pretty good incline my EGTs were 1,000. Just driving around the city, some hills I see 700-800 when I'm going 35mph.
At stop lights I'm seeing 400 at idle. My probe on the pyro is going bad starting to flutter but even if I fix that I'm still having issues up hills. Boost is good, up-pipes don't appear to be leaking but fuel pressure is a little low @56 and I know it's not the fpr because I just messed with that yesterday, put a new poppet and oring in, I haven't checked the fuel pump yet or dropped the tank either. If it is in fact fuel pressure related, does it make sense for me to see smoke coming out, wouldn't that indicate too much fuel? I'm lost, it's driving unloaded like I'm pulling an anchor.
Regardless of which spring I put in the frx I get 56psi, even with the black one I may see 58psi but even with 58psi it was still lugging it's butt off up hills and making that terrible drone sound like F you down shift me now.
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I have a 2002 F350 4wd with the 7.3. I was driving the truck and all of a sudden it was running like crap. the engine light was on. after a minute or so the engine light goes off and the truck is running fine. then again starts running like crap. I am close to the house so I limp it home. runs like crap.... will barley climb small hills. engine light is on. get home turn it off... next day... starts up and runs great for 10 - 15 min. engine light comes back on... runs like crap.... my neighbor says "It's the crank position sensor" I replace it.... runs great for a month.... now it's doing the same thing......
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Picked up a second 7.3, just finished installing the new transmission last night, took it on a drive last night, everything was fine.
Went to bring it home last night- and found myself unable to maintain 50-55mph on back roads at 3500 rpm.
At first it almost seemed like I wasn't getting 3rd/4th gear, but upon taking it for a spin with torque pro, I am getting all gears, overdrive works, TC locks- all appears good there. Trans is getting really hot- but I believe I messed up the bypass lines or the bypass valve is not opening correctly- not the biggest concern.
I let the truck cool to more normal operating temps, took it for a spin, same story. I top out flooring it at about 55mph. No fault codes other than my faulty glow plug module. Everything I'm monitoring on torquepro looks fine with the exception of boost. When I floor my other 7.3, I get 15-20 psi, this, I get like.. 4. Unplugged MAP, nothing changed.
Turbo shot? Glogged pipes? These are my first initial thoughts. Let me know if I'm going in the right direction here, I can rebuild a gas motor in my sleep, but diesels are a newer animal to me, I've only had them about 2 months.
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