Thread: I think we might have sorted the Ranger...

So the saga (I think) is nearing the end...

The vehicle is an early PX2 ranger, one of the first of the new subgroup with the 3500Kg tow rating (after the earlier 3250 PX1's).

It started developing an annoying issue with the check powertrain light illuminating, sometimes throwing a P0089-xxxx code, sometimes other codes, sometimes no code. The P0089 was 'fuel regulator a pressure out of spec', but the datalogging showed not much of an issue with the pressures being achieved by the injection pump and no real issues with anything related to the operation of the pump (metallic fragments in the fuel filter etc etc).

It also started behaving quite weirdly in terms of electronic operation, parking sensors randomly failing or not wanting to play the game but testing out fine, cruise control randomly cutting out or misbehaving, fuel lift pump/sender randomly operating in an erratic fashion, etc etc.

Took a long time but finally chased one of the causes of the vehicle's issue to a failed sensor power supply regulator in the powertrain control module that was not supplying a perfectly regulated 5.0vdc (anything between 4.9 and 5.1 with surges and spikes). Manage to track down a replacement PCM out of a pranged vehicle, this took a massive effort to get playing nicely with everything else in the vehicle as the PATS (passive anti theft system) rejected the new module so everything had to be told to play nice again. The instrument control module is still fighting... Once the PCM was replaced and the sensor supply voltage was stabilised we could suddenly see a wide range of sensors that were inoperative or damaged including the throttle body position motor and a few other rather critical sensors including the (so we thought) the fuel rail pressure sensor.

On ripping the fuel rail pressure sensor out, it was like the meme: "ewww, brother, ewww, what's that????" - a rather large lump of white squishy goop sitting on a chalky flaky material completely covering and blocking the sensor port in the end of the pressure sensor. The same white goop was half filling the common rail as well... Seems that someone in the factory in Thailand decided that the bulk supply of thread sealant coming from their mate's supply outfit needed to be used up and that dipping the pressure sensor directly into the crap was the way forwards. Thanks Ford - doomed from the factory to die young... Basically the pressure could get into the sensor, but the chalky sealant packed into the end of the sensor was delaying the pressure dropping so no surprises it was throwing a hissy code about pressure out of spec.

Back into the mechanic, pull all injectors and test for diagnostic and sure enough two failed - one blocked off No1 cylinder and No3 cylinder not performing due to high resistance (likely another victim of the failed PCM). A full set of injectors later and we will see how it goes.

It was actually surprising the vehicle was running as well as it was considering everything it had against it, and it will be interesting to see how it goes now that everything is hopefully sorted (with the exception of the instrument panel controller!).

What a bloody saga, should have rolled it off a cliff accidentally and claimed on it. Basically 6.5 years of trying to figure out what components had died in the thing, including 3 odd years of delays over covid where the ute wasn't really being used.

Jaysus what a farkin nightmare

I hate modern electronics - I have an utterly spastic Isuzu DMax that brakes randomly when it senses someone in front, would cheerfully brick the accelerator and film it driving off the top of the Remutaka Hill but it's a work vehicle and free diesel is hard to pass up

Good to hear that someone is actually winning against these things

Fark what has all that cost ya ? bet that adds up

What a drama! Glad you seem to be getting it sorted. The Series IIa Landy on TradeMe that I've had an eye on suddenly looks much more appealing!

Surely @ a hundy plus plus an hour for a technician to work his convoluted way through all that nightmare of faulty sensors, fault codes, high pressure plumbing etc it would have made the entire exercise uneconomic (unless this is an own project venture??)

And the thread sealant! I would have thought showing this to Ford NZ would have made them stump up a new short block plus inj pump. Plus, who designs a 30 thousand psi fuel system that relies on thread sealant!!!

Originally Posted by XR500

Surely @ a hundy plus plus an hour for a technician to work his convoluted way through all that nightmare of faulty sensors, fault codes, high pressure plumbing etc it would have made the entire exercise uneconomic (unless this is an own project venture??)

And the thread sealant! I would have thought showing this to Ford NZ would have made them stump up a new short block plus inj pump. Plus, who designs a 30 thousand psi fuel system that relies on thread sealant!!!

Closer to it than you'd think - Ford dealer answer was oh, the injection pump, injectors and piping need replacing @ circa $9500... I said so what about the electronic glitches and all the rest of the issues that aren't related to the high pressure side? "Shrug". If it doesn't fix it we will sort it out... So am I paying the $9500? Yep. What happens to that if it doesn't fix it? Well, um... That was about where Ford decided they couldn't fix the bloody thing...

I've been running an OBDII datalogger on it ever since although it took a lot longer than expected to get good data due to a few years not really running the vehicle with Covid and an injury. The data convinced us the fault had an electronic or control contribution in nature and not a purely mechanical cause - but it wasn't until I got an automotive sparky in with a very new scan tool that we stumbled over the PCM module issue. That scan tool flagged the sensor voltage issue with big red flashing borders, and after being told that the module wasn't repairable it lead us down the route of trying to find a replacement - which wasn't easy as the manual modules are different to the auto box versions and the manuals were only ever around 10% of production and stopped completely in 2017. I was lucky to find a manual wreck being parted fairly close and was successful in getting the module about an hour before the entire rest of the vehicle sold... Getting the thing into the vehicle was an absolute nightmare and took the sparky with his gear plus an automotive locksmith with all up four scan tools and 3 apps just to reset and reconnect all of the modules after they rejected life with the damn anti-theft bullshit and getting the transponders re-coded. That took about two weeks with a bricked vehicle around a few unexpected delays getting the people in.

It was then that we stumbled over the level of sensor issues and sorting that out. Popping the pressure sensor out was where the sealant issue came to light and the requirement to test and confirm the injector status. Could have just replaced the two failed injectors but went with the whole set which was an extra $1700 basically. I'm totally unimpressed at Ford to be fair, total failure to even address the issues and start investigating in the correct areas. No interest in diagnosing exactly what the failed part(s) were, just swap and hope... I'm convinced that they would not have been able to sort the issues with this vehicle. All up cost wise, is about $7000 (so far) including the OBDII datalogger and some investigative work that went nowhere but as it's a business vehicle that's deductible. Even though it's an older ute I'm not seeing the value in replacing it. I'd have to go with an auto if I did replace it, and at current fuel prices the difference in fuel burn between the manual and the auto's is in the region of $10,000 per 100,000Km. That kind of pays for the repairs.

Next step is to replace the vane oil pump with a gear pump, and with that done and the other work just sorted the major fail points are alleviated with the thing.

Clean it with fire, claim insurance and get something else,

Originally Posted by Steve123

Clean it with fire, claim insurance and get something else,

I doubt even fire would have cleansed that thing.

I fully think it's cursed. I went to print the invoice off from the mechanic and the bloody Brother office laser literally blew up, bang magic smoke... Luckily that's still under warranty.

Also, I go back to the comment manuals are a lot cheaper to feed than the auto's - considerably so. It's more economic to stick with this ute than replace unless I get lucky and find another manual...

So after all of that - the first 500Km the vehicle is reporting 7.2 or 7.3L/100Km fuel consumption in normal open road driving. I'd say well worth doing the work on it so far...

I wouldn't. Get rid of the fucking thing before it costs you another 10 grand.

I hate modern Ford with a fucking passion. Also, that sounds EXACTLY like the useless pack of cunts at Ultimate Ford.

Mate of mine had his late model (under warranty) Mondeo work car in with them for a service a couple of xmases ago. They rang him up and said cambelt is also due. He says yeah sure whatever, go for it. Gets vehicle back a couple of days later, and a week after that, the engine spectacularly shits the bed all of a sudden. Their diagnosis? The cambelt broke. He says to them, well you just did the cambelt last week, how has it just broken? They say well there must have been an oil leak onto it, so we're not covering it. He says what oil leak? And why wasn't that picked up or mentioned when you did the service and the cambelt job itself? Their response, pay for a replacement engine or come get it.

The whole company have moved over to Toyota instead.

I don't know why people persist with their garbage product and service

Originally Posted by tac a1

I wouldn't. Get rid of the fucking thing before it costs you another 10 grand.

What are you going to get that won't have the same risk of costing you 10k out of the current crop of new utes? Not being a smart arse, serious question.

Me mate has gone off Toyota after his last one - this guy is or was one of Barry Crumps kids. The latest Fords aren't proving completely reliable, the Mazda Isuzu mix has issues, the mitsi new model is only a few months in and Nissan, well yeah. Nice but not work trucks.

Sometimes the devil you know... Add to the replacement vehicle price circa $6k suspension sort out that the current ute has already and changing out for someone else's cast off is the same risk or worse in a new wrapper...

Originally Posted by Tommy

I hate modern Ford with a fucking passion. Also, that sounds EXACTLY like the useless pack of cunts at Ultimate Ford.

Mate of mine had his late model (under warranty) Mondeo work car in with them for a service a couple of xmases ago. They rang him up and said cambelt is also due. He says yeah sure whatever, go for it. Gets vehicle back a couple of days later, and a week after that, the engine spectacularly shits the bed all of a sudden. Their diagnosis? The cambelt broke. He says to them, well you just did the cambelt last week, how has it just broken? They say well there must have been an oil leak onto it, so we're not covering it. He says what oil leak? And why wasn't that picked up or mentioned when you did the service and the cambelt job itself? Their response, pay for a replacement engine or come get it.

The whole company have moved over to Toyota instead.

I don't know why people persist with their garbage product and service

I'd make the argument that the product is no better or worse than anything else given the current design and safety constraints that the designers and engineers are working within. The service, well yes. Shame of it is the sales team are actually very efficient and do a good job.

Originally Posted by No.3

What are you going to get that won't have the same risk of costing you 10k out of the current crop of new utes? Not being a smart arse, serious question.

Me mate has gone off Toyota after his last one - this guy is or was one of Barry Crumps kids. The latest Fords aren't proving completely reliable, the Mazda Isuzu mix has issues, the mitsi new model is only a few months in and Nissan, well yeah. Nice but not work trucks.

Sometimes the devil you know... Add to the replacement vehicle price circa $6k suspension sort out that the current ute has already and changing out for someone else's cast off is the same risk or worse in a new wrapper...

While under warranty none of the new utes will cost ya 10 though.
You obviously love ya ranger that's very clear but you've dropped 10k on 25k ute once you've got that mindset you keep pouring money at it until one day you realise you've spent 30k on a 25k ute
Reminds me off a john deere I had.
If we all listened to others on what utes to buy
We'd all walk everywhere for fair of them blowing up.
I wouldn't judge other makes just make up your own mind.

Sent from my SM-S916B using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by BRADS

If we all listened to others on what utes to buy
We'd all walk everywhere for fair of them blowing up.
I wouldn't judge other makes just make up your own mind.

Fair point. Another crowd up the road from us bought 5 rangers, they all had a motor within 100,000km, which was 2 years the rate they were using them. One didn't even make it's first service, a dodgy injector fucked the motor in a month. Then the replacement motor fell out (no shit, they didn't torque or locktite the mount bolts to the block.), just endless issues that left them short on wheels

They have since moved to 70 series VD and had a much better run, although that's not reeeaaally comparing apples with apples I guess. They still manage to smash them, given the beer bottles in the back of all of them, it's not really a mystery how that's happening, but it ain't toyota's fault hahahaha