Ignition miss '02 4.0l

[brock71]

I have looked around on the forum for some info, but didn't find what I was looking for. Can anyone help?
My '02 ranger with 68K miles suddenly developed an ignition miss after sitting a couple hours after a long drive. I wiggled the pludg wires on th ecoil pack and movd one or two ingitionwires and it bagan to work agan. I pulled all the wires of the coil pack. Look perfect, no corrision.
I'm thinking a wire went bad. Will wet it down after dark to see if it sparks.

My question is...what usualy goes wrong with these EDIS ignitions? Maybe some common problems?

Thanks,
John

 

[nitrofan1]

No common problems that I know of. Do you have a check engine light on? OBD II systems will throw a code most of the time if a plug wire is bad (example cyl 2 misfire detected). How is the maintenance upkeep? Also look into fuel delivery along with the ignition system.

 

[brock71]

The maintrenance has been good, But it's early to have a major tune up (I think) at this mileage.

I sprayed the ignition down with a spray bottle of water after dark.
Was able to get the faintest of spark leakage on the wires at the right hand side of the coil pack. No engine miss detectable. I really wet it all down. Would have hought I'd get some miss fire.

Will the OBD-II system store a code if the check engine light came on during the mis-fire incident, but later went out when the mis-fire went away? Does the check engine light latch "on" once it catches a code?

Finally---it looks simple enough to get at 3 or 4 of the plug end of the wires. Any advice on replacing the rear two on the passenger side?

John

 

[nitrofan1]

Yes. OBD II will store a code forever if it's not cleared. I can imagine the number of cars on the road that have codes stored and the driver doesn't know it.

Well, number 5 isn't that bad, at least on the OHV 4.0. On number 6 go though the fender well. I used 2 extensions, 2 u-joints, the ratchet & socket. You probably will snap the ceramic insulator off (at least I did) but don't worry. It will still come out. Be sure to use anti-seeze on the threads and gap them before installation.

For a lot of people they don't realize when doing a tune up a good rule of thumb is change the fuel filter & pcv valve if you are doing a tune up. Better to do it when it's not needed vs waiting till there's a problem.