Brenda
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2018
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1995-1996
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Automatic
I'm at my wit's end here. So, my '95 is supposed to be an OBD 1 but is a 2. So the year??? It's an XLT 3.0L 4x4 automatic tranny. Bought it used in March 2016. At that time the only thing wrong I could see was the in dash gear indicator didn't work. It just stayed there in 1st. And the power locks didn't work right, which I've come to learn might be directly involved with my problem. In August 2016 I had my first issue that led me where I am. I came out of work, climbed in, (not seeing or hearing any problems), put the key in, and got not even a sound. No warning, no nothing...but everything else had power. Made no sense, but ya know. I've had weird things start cars that shouldn't start therm so I tried a jump even though I knew I wouldn't have lights, radio, etc. if the battery was dead. Didn't do a thing. My daughter brought me a brand new battery. By this time it was like 3 hours later. We put it in and it started. They followed me home, I shut it off, turned the key, and was back to it not starting. Terminals looked fine, blah, blah. But after that day i had no more issues...for a bit. Couple months later in November it did it again. This time my friend changed the oil, filter, and did a minor tune-up. Next day it started and ran fine again. Next problem wasn't until August 2017. By then I was pretty sick of this, but had no clue what it could be. The month before I had been to O'Reillys and was trying to figure out why it rrrrr before each start. Was it my ignition switch, battery, starter? Battery, starter, alternator all checked out. Maybe the solenoid? Was told to try that. Well, a month later there I was. I knew what the heck it wasn't, but the boys still seemed to think they had the answers. It's either the starter or the solenoid they said... i told them about bypassing the state starter through the solenoid and they didn't know what I was talking about. I have up and said let's try the solonoid, since it failed the YouTube test I'd watched. Not the solonoid. So, I let 'em go ahead and change the starter, even though knew better. And, of course, it started. Next incident was different though. Big-time!! I'm late leaving for work and I didn't warm it up a lot. Backed out of the driveway, put it in drive, get no more than 8 yards and drive just stopped. i didn't lose power, but more like the gear just quit working. If only I knew then what I know now... But at that time I'd be in the middle of the road and I'd put it park, rev the engine for a few, and off I'd go. Kept getting a bit worse each time, but it didn't do it every time. I knew I was in trouble, but I had no other way to get to work...so on I kept going. Last incident was me inout to go to work, put the key in and turned it, and getting 5 second of the sound of a start when it did it. No power at all for the first time. Kept turning the key for nothing. Took out the key and got a hold of a possible ride to work. While waiting I tried to start it again. I had power this time but it was the same as before. No start. Only thing that I saw really weird was my radio presets were gone. I'm like, what the hell??? After work I tinkered around. The battery terminal was more corroded than I've ever seen any before. Cleaned it off and it started better then it ever had. I put it in reverse, backed up and thought I better not. Put it in drive to get all the way in the driveway and that's when I found I had NO gears. I swear...I know more about cars now than most. I found out about limp mode for the first time, and realized that everytime we "fixed" my truck we were resetting it so the truck thought it was fixed. And clearing codes. I skipped limp mode and went straight to transmission fail safe. Secondary strategy, to be precise, is what I'd been going through while leading up to this. This is where I'm going bald. I've even gotten to where I'm figuring out wiring diagrams. Lol. The only code I got was P1401, which could mean way too many things taken all my ups and downs. I just have a little nagging suspicion that if I get the DDFE sensor it won't work. I thought it was going to be the MAF sensor myself, but with my luck I thought the gas cap was more likely. Just so happens that I was losing fuel economy and thought my gas was being stolen. Didn't know at the time what was going on. So I went to Walmart and got a locking cap a few weeks ago. Having hell getting it off, and with the timing....I was so hopeful. Ha... Right. Put the old cap on. Not fixed. I don't get it though. Even though I knew it was in fail safe the OD didn't start flashing until just two days ago, and when I put the old cap back on it has stopped. Oh, one more detail. Just a few weeks ago too my check engine light started coming on when my fuel was low, and going off after I got gas. And that's the ONLY time it came on. I'm losing the heart to keep trying to figure this out. I've come across the answer to everyone else's posted questions, but can't get a complete answer on my own. Please clue me in if you have any insight. It's just me here. A 46 year old gal that's lucky to get a ride to the store for food now. I could really use a hand! Thank you much.