Hey, friends. It's Len here from 1A Auto. Today in the studio, we have a 3rd Generation
Ford Explorer. I wanted to go over some of the top problems
that we've come to find, so let's get started. Now, for our first problem, we're gonna talk
about ignition coil issues. Your ignition coil on this truck is gonna
be located right along the front right here. Now, the job of the ignition coil pack is
to take power that comes from this lead right here, go ahead and build it up inside this
area, and then it's gonna transport it through these wires to the spark plug. At that point, the spark plug's gonna spark
up and ignite the combustible materials inside of your engine, which, of course, is gonna
make the engine turnover and run.
Now, if you are having an issue with your
ignition coil, so what you might happen to find is lack of power. You might also happen to notice that you have
a misfire condition. If you have a misfire condition, you might
tend to feel that under acceleration or even idling sitting still. Other than that, you might happen to notice
that you have a check engine light that comes on the dash.
Now, if you were to pull that check engine
code, you might happen to find that you have codes that come up saying something along
the lines of P0301 or even P0306. Essentially, anywhere in between is gonna
tell you which is having an issue. Other than that, you might just happen to
notice lack of power, but that's more than likely gonna be due to the misfire condition. Now, ignition coils come in all different
shapes and sizes. This one, in particular, comes as a coil pack
which essentially means it has one coil pack that controls all the spark plugs through
their wires. Some common causes why maybe your coil pack
might go bad essentially could be because, of course, there's a lot of heat coming from
your engine.
The heat, of course, is gonna break down the
plastics that come along here. If it breaks down and cracks in any way, moisture
can make its way inside. Other than that, of course, where the wires
go on, if you were to remove that and look down inside here, you're gonna see an area
where, of course, moisture could potentially make its way in.
There's gonna be a contact point that needs
to make its way to here. That's how the current's gonna go through. If moisture makes its way in there or even
the electrical connector on the backside here, of course, you're gonna have a runnability
issue. Now, as far as fixes for this, it's gonna
be a little bit different than diagnosing regular coils, something such as this, because,
of course, if you had one of these and it was directly over a spark plug, all you would
have to do is essentially go ahead and transfer it from one spark plug to another and, of
course, if that misfire happened to move to the new cylinder that you move the coil too,
you'd be able to tell that your coil is bad. For this, in particular, type of coil, it's
a little bit different though.
Essentially, with this one, you have one coil
that's controlling all the different spark plugs. If you happen to find that you're having a
misfire on one in particular cylinder, you could, of course, go ahead and try to remove
the wire, inspect it, inspect inside this area, and then, of course, you'd wanna go
down to the spark plug, inspect the spark plug as well. And, of course, if you found that you were
having an issue with multiple cylinders, then more than likely, that's gonna come down to
having an issue with the coil pack. So if you find that you're having an issue
with the coil, of course, you'd wanna go ahead and replace that. Typically at the same time as replacing the
coil, it really couldn't hurt to replace the wires if they haven't been done in a while
and, of course, inspect those spark plugs and typically you're gonna replace those as
well. Now, for our second problem, we're gonna talk
about timing chain issues, more specifically on this, the timing chain tensioner and guides. Now, for this problem, it's gonna be a little
bit more difficult for me to show you something because it's actually located inside the front
of the engine.
The responsibility of the timing chain, of
course, is to keep everything in time. You're gonna have valves that are inside your
engine that need to be able to open and close as they should. If for some reason something's out of time,
the valves aren't gonna be able to function properly and your engine's not gonna run right. Now, if your truck's having this issue, some
of the things that you might happen to find is that you hear a little bit of a ticking
noise coming from your engine. That's how it's generally gonna start. You might also happen to hear a whining noise
coming from the front of your engine. Any of these things could potentially mean
that you're having an issue with your timing chain and/or the timing chain tensioner, and,
of course, guides.
You might also happen to notice that you have
runnability issues. Maybe it just doesn't seem like your engine
has as much power as it should. Of course, if this issue got worse and you
didn't necessarily take care of it in time, you might actually have internal engine damage. Now, as far as fixes for this, it's not necessarily
gonna be the easiest thing to go ahead and fix. You're gonna have to pull apart the entire
front-end of your engine here so you can access the timing chain and, of course, the timing
chain tensioner.
Something like this is something that you're
gonna wanna replace all at the same time. So when you're in there, go ahead and replace
the timing chain, the tensioner, and any guides that you happen to find that look as though
they're worn. And, of course, keep in mind, if you happen
to mess up the timing of the engine when you're doing the replacement of this, your engine's
probably not gonna run right. Now, for problem number three, we're gonna
talk about blend door issues. For this, we're gonna be inside the passenger
compartment. You're gonna be able to find your temperature
control switches. This one right here in the center, obviously,
it's the one that you can make it so you can go hot or even cool, depending on your particular
situation. There's gonna be a blend door that's located
behind your dash that's gonna be able to take care of that. Other than that, you also have this one right
here. This is the diverter one.
So, of course, if you wanted the air coming
out of your vents, you can do that or go ahead and switch it to defrost to go ahead and defrost
that windshield. Well, in some cases, what could potentially
happen is the blend doors that are supposed to be able to switch these things around inside
of your dash end up binding up inside. It's very common for them to either crack
or break in some way and, of course, bind. Other than that, a reason why they might bind
it could potentially be something fell inside of one of the vents. Maybe somebody put a pencil or a piece of
debris made its way inside. If it's binding up the blend door, you might
have an issue where you can't go from cold to hot or hot to cold or even you try to go
from defrost to something else. Another symptom that you might happen to find
could potentially be if you were to try to switch this from either hot to cold or cold
to hot, you might end up hearing like a clunking noise coming from behind your dash.
Now, if you were to go ahead and pull down
on your glove box, you're gonna be able to see behind here where your heater box is. There's gonna be blend doors that are located
inside that. If, of course, you had an issue with one of
the blend doors, you're gonna have to get inside of this area and try to diagnose it. Typically, what it's gonna come down to is
you're gonna have to go ahead and replace the entire HVAC box if you're having an issue
with one of your blend doors. Now, for our fourth problem, we're gonna talk
about fuel pumps. The fuel pump on this truck is gonna be located
on the passenger side inside your fuel tank which is located under the truck. Now, I have a fuel pump in my hand right here. It's not necessarily the one for this truck,
but it's one that you can physically see because the other one's inside the fuel tank and I'm,
of course, not gonna drop it out of there just to show you it.
What can potentially go bad on the fuel pumps
themselves is, of course, you're gonna have this selector right here which is essentially
gonna tell your fuel gauge where the fuel level's at. This could potentially go bad. Other than that, inside, you're gonna have
a fuel pump itself. The fuel pump, of course, is gonna have the
job of sending the fuel up to the engine so it can be burned up inside that combustion
chamber. The pump itself, of course, could potentially
wear out. It's just an electronic pump and, of course,
the more it runs, especially if your fuel level is typically low, maybe like to be under
quarter tank for some reason most of the time, you're gonna burn out your fuel pump.
Some common symptoms that you might happen
to have if you're having an issue with your fuel pump might be a loud humming noise coming
from underneath your truck around the fuel tank. Some of the symptoms that you might happen
to have if you're having an issue with your fuel pump might be getting out of your truck
and you happen to hear a loud humming noise coming from underneath the truck around the
fuel tank. A light humming noise is very common because,
of course, the pump is gonna make a little bit of noise, especially inside that fuel
tank.
If you hear a loud humming, more than likely
the fuel pump's on its way out. Another symptom that you might happen to have
if you're having an issue with your fuel pump might potentially be a runnability issue. The reason for that is because if the fuel
pump isn't up to par, it probably doesn't have enough fuel pressure going up to the
engine to be burned up in that combustion chamber. If that's the case, you're probably gonna
find that you have a runnability issue, you might find lack of power, or even the truck
just doesn't even wanna start.
Now, as far as fixes for this, what we're
gonna wanna do is, of course, check fuel pressure first. You wanna make sure that you're up to spec. If for some reason your fuel pressure is a
little bit low, of course, you're gonna wanna check that fuel filter. If the fuel filter looks as though it's rusted
and old in any way or maybe you just haven't replaced it since you even owned the truck,
go ahead and replace that because more than likely it's probably pretty plugged up. After you replace the fuel filter, go ahead
and retest that. Make sure that your fuel pressure is up. If for some reason still isn't up, more than
likely it comes down to the fuel pump. If for some reason you're replacing the fuel
pump, it really only makes sense to replace the fuel filter at the same time.
Okay, friends. Let's make our way to the back of the truck
because I wanna talk about our fifth problem. For this one, it's gonna come down to this
wiper arm right here. There's gonna be a couple of different things
that I wanna go over with it. What you might happen to notice is when you
go ahead and put on your wiper blade, for some reason, the wiper blade itself just doesn't
necessarily touch up against the entire back window here. Maybe it touches a little bit and then it
just doesn't even clean the rest of it. A common reason for that could potentially
be the wiper blade itself, but generally, it comes down to this joint right along here. It's supposed to be a hinge and it's supposed
to flow freely. So, essentially, if I was to lift this arm
away and let it go, well, it's supposed to go back up against the window.
It's supposed to hold pressure against the
window so it can clean it properly so you can see out the back window. The hinge right along here is very susceptible
to moisture and, of course, it's gonna build up corrosion. If the hinge builds up corrosion or is stuck
in any way, of course, it's not gonna be able to put the proper amount of pressure up against
the window to be able to clean it. To fix this, of course, what you could try
to do is carefully try to spray it with some penetrant. Of course, you don't wanna get it all over
the window or any of your paint, and then try to work it in just by going back and forth
like this.
Typically that's gonna make its way inside
there and it's gonna loosen it up so you have pressure up against the window again. Other than that, if you found that after you
tried doing it, it just really didn't wanna work very well still, you just go ahead and
replace this wiper arm. It's very simple. Take this off right here and, of course, remove
the wiper blade.
And since we're talking about the rear wiper
arm, let's go with the possibility that maybe you go ahead and switch it on but for some
reason, it just doesn't even function at all. If that's the case, it's gonna come down to
the wiper motor itself so if you were to lift up on your tailgate and get underneath this
right along here, you're gonna be able to find where your wiper motor is. I'm just gonna go ahead and pull this way
so we can take a peek.
Now with this pulled away, we have a clear
view of the wiper motor itself. You can see where the shaft is supposed to
go through the window and then to the wiper arm. One of the first things I like to check is
this electrical connector that goes into it. Go ahead and take it off. Take a peek. If you see any funny colors, it's corrosion
and it needs to be dealt with. After that, what I wanna do is test for power
and ground. We wanna make sure that we have power going
to it when it's supposed to.
If it has power and ground coming right along
here but this still doesn't work, you need to go ahead and replace your wiper motor. Whoa. Since we're back here, this is another thing
that I wanna talk about. A crack that looks a lot like this is very
common on these boards. Typically, what it comes down to when this
tends to happen is you're gonna have to replace this panel right along here. Okay, friends. So that's pretty much what I've got for you
for top problems on a 3rd Generation Ford Explorer. Maybe you got one of these trucks or a car
of your own with a story of your own.
If you do, leave it in the comments section
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