Orca
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2020
- Messages
- 141
- Reaction score
- 37
- Points
- 28
- Location
- USA
- Vehicle Year
- 2004
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
Actually, the "wheel sensors" do provide speed information to the ABS (and, hence, to the PCM). That's why the common acronym is "WSS" (Wheel Speed Sensor).The wheel sensors don't provide speed information to the ECU. The wheel sensor just pulses to determine if one wheel is going slower than the other indicating a skid to activate the ABS.
Furthermore, one of my reference sources for a 2005 Ranger mentions this:
That suggests to me that the PCM may indeed be limiting vehicle speed based on unreliable speed inputs. I know that RonD mentioned speed limiting earlier, but he had suggested that 95 MPH was the most common. Maybe 55 MPH is also used as a limit under other conditions?Be aware of engine RPM / speed-limiting functions of the PCM (look for incorrect high vehicle speed signal from ABS, VSS, or OSS).
If it were me, I'd be doing what RonD already suggested above: get an inexpensive OBD2 scantool. I'd add that you should get some smart software to drive it (FORScan for Windows, free, running on a laptop is best, but almost anything is better than nothing) and start looking at speed-related PIDs, including the WSS (Wheel Speed Sensor) values reported by the ABS, and the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) reported by the PCM.
If it's just a bad sensor, it should be easy enough to replace (I've replaced a faulty front WSS on my 2004 Ranger -- piece of cake) and you'll save a ton of money compared to the dealership.