98 explorer miss

99jeeptj

New Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Location
thomasvile n.c.
i got a 98 ford explorer sport with the 4.0 v6 i got on the highway the other day to travel a single exit over ran up to highway speed plus 10-15 mph(lol) ran over to my exit downshifted came to stop , whola engine missing like crazy within one mile service engine light comes on, put reader on it tc304 #4 misfire it has new plugs in it had this trouble before turned out to be non plug and wire related what the heck is please help
 
Not familiar with the Exploders coil setup but if is like most newer vehicles it has individual coils on each cylinder and a lot of times the coil can be going bad and cause the misfire code.

Easiest way to diagnose this is to move the coil from cylinder four and to another cylinder and see if the code follows.
 
First things first... How long ago was the problem before? Did someone repair something that fixed it then?

If it has been an on going concern does it do it only when it gets hot or does it do it all the time? Trying swapping sides on the coil. If you look at you coil pack, it has 3 separate coils on it, it is not one big coil. Wherever number 4 wire plugs onto the coil, swap it and whichever wire is right beside of it, meaning side to side of the vehicle, not front to back.

Had this problem while i was working at a local dealer. Came down to it being the cylinder head was cracked between the valves and when the engine got warm, the crack would let coolant leak into the chamber thus causing a misfire. When the vehicle was cool, either the crack was closing up or the lack or pressure on the coolant system would keep coolant from leaking. Try doing a "hot" coolant pressure test. Put the pressure tester on the radiator and get the vehicle warm with it installed and try to add pressure to the system. If it goes over 16 and stays or goes higher, you should be fine. If it wont build up pressure no matter how long you run it, I would be looking towards a coolant leak in the cylinder.
 
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