2003 DPFE hose blasting off after p0171 p0174

[amyandmikes]

Hello all, I am looking for some help getting my Windstar back on the road. It is a 2003 with 75,000 miles. About 6 months ago, I got the P0171 and P0174 codes. The van ran great so I put off the repair until it started hesitating in 3rd and 4th gear. I decided the time was right, so I went ahead with the repair. There wasn't a whole lot of oil in the plennum and the EGR ports weren't too bad either. After the fix, the CEL went off immediately. Thought everything was great until the test drive.

The hesitation continued so I scoured the forums again for a possible cause. I've read that the coil is a common problem causing the hesitation. I inspected my coil and there were 2 significant cracks on the towers. I went ahead and bought a now Ford coil and decided to replace the plugs and wires while I was at it. I couldn't find the APP 105 and got a APP 104 instead from Autolite. They are double platinum. After putting everything back together, the van wouldn't start. It would only sputter. I figured the plugs were probably incorrect so I put back in the original ones. This didn't help either. I replaced the coil, plugs, and wires back to the original hopping to just get the thing running. It did but the idle sounds terrible with a very loud popping noise coming from the front engine.

I located the noise coming from the large hose connecting the DPFE. I put it back on and tried starting it again. There is a large popping (pulsing) on air running through the hose which eventually pops the hose right off the DPFE after about 20 seconds of running. I am suspecting the DPFE is bad, but what would cause the popping and pulsing of air through the hose? Could the catalytic converters be bad at 75,000 miles already? and if they are, why would it happen suddenly just after replacing the coil, plugs, and wires?

I would appreciate any direction the forum can give, Thanks

[olopezm]

I'm not sure if this can be a bad catalytic converter but an easy way to see if that's the problem would de removing from the exhaust one of the O2 sensors before the converter, start the engine and see if the popping goes away together with the sputtering.

Another possibility would be the EGR system is having problems. Are you sure you reconnected all of the hoses in the right place?. You could try connecting a small hose to the EGR valve and suck some air to make sure the valve is in a good condition. You should feel the diaphragm moving freely, just be careful not to damage it with too much vacuum.

Best regards,

Oscar.

[olopezm]

By the way,

Welcome to the forum!

[wiswind]

The hoses poping off of the DPFE sounds like something is causing you to have high back pressure.
I don't know how that would happen suddenly.....but maybe this has been the problem all along?.

Did you change the DPFE, or for some other reason remove those hoses?
The DPFE would not be causing the excessive pressure in any way.
The DPFE senses the difference in pressure between the 2 hoses.
There is a restriction in the EGR tube, between the 2 hose locations on the tube.
With the EGR valve closed, as is normal at idle, there would be no flow through the tube, and no difference in pressure between the 2 locations.
With the EGR valve open, there will be a slight difference in pressure between the 2 locations with slight airflow through the EGR tube.
The EGR tube will be at whatever pressure the exhaust manifold is at.
A defective DPFE, EGR valve, or EGR tube is not going to change the fact that the hose in question is going to be at about whatever pressure is present in the exhaust manifold.

The PCM (computer) should not be asking for the EGR valve to be open while the motor is at idle.
You could check this by removing the vaccum line to the EGR valve and seeing if the idle improves.
It is normal for there to be a slight amount of vaccum in this vaccum line at idle....but not enough to open the EGR valve.
It is sounding like you have excessive pressure in the exhaust manifold.
While the DPFE may or may not be defective, I do not see it causing this excessive pressure.
I would say that you need to solve the back pressure issue first.....and see if that solves all the problems.

[amyandmikes]

I ran the engine for a couple of minutes today and took a look at the catalytic converter and it was glowing red. This was were the back flow pressure is coming from. I called the dealership and it looks like it should be covered under the 8 year / 80000 mile emission warranty. I will keep my fingers crossed. Hard to believe that the problem wasn't the isolator bolts or the cracked coil.......everything pointed in that direction. I will keep sending updates on if Ford will actually cover the repair. Thanks again for all the help

[CnlK]

Sounds like one of the plug wires may have gotten misrouted. This would also cause converter to glow red as it burning the raw fuel.