Engine ping 2004 ranger

[tjr1000]

I have a 2004 Ford Ranger with 21,000 miles (3 liter engine standard transmission). After about 10,000 miles I noticed the engine started pinging going up hills, even small hills like the entrance to a freeway. Took it back to the dealer, and they did some kind of program change to the computer, which seemed to make a difference for awhile. But the ping came back. The dealer suggested switching to higher octane fuel. I live in Denver so the truck is always over 5000 feet altitude. Now at 21,000 miles, the ping seems to be getting louder.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem? Would like to avoid having to buy premium fuel if possible. 10-20 cents extra a gallon adds up to a lot of bucks over the life of the vehicle. Since I didn't have this problem on my other two trucks (one a Ranger, one a Mazda), its hard to understand why this one should need different fuel. Any comments or ideas are appreciated.

[2000mudder]

you and the dealer are both correct. you shouldn't have to run higher octane than the manufacture calls for but at that altitude you might have to run 89 octane gas. what kind of gas are you using? is it straight or blended with ethonol? aks the station what kinda gas it is and try switching to the other kind. the ethonol blends start with a 84 octane and the 10% ethonol brings it up to 87 octane. straight 87 octane gas might work better for your motor.

[Psychopete]

Originally Posted by tjr1000

I have a 2004 Ford Ranger with 21,000 miles (3 liter engine standard transmission). After about 10,000 miles I noticed the engine started pinging going up hills, even small hills like the entrance to a freeway. Took it back to the dealer, and they did some kind of program change to the computer, which seemed to make a difference for awhile. But the ping came back. The dealer suggested switching to higher octane fuel. I live in Denver so the truck is always over 5000 feet altitude. Now at 21,000 miles, the ping seems to be getting louder.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem? Would like to avoid having to buy premium fuel if possible. 10-20 cents extra a gallon adds up to a lot of bucks over the life of the vehicle. Since I didn't have this problem on my other two trucks (one a Ranger, one a Mazda), its hard to understand why this one should need different fuel. Any comments or ideas are appreciated.

I heard a 180 degree thermostat does wonders for the 3.0L pinging. I myself honestly have never owned one, but you might try cleaning the MAF. Do not use carb cleaner on the MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor). Find instructions on doing so. I don't work a lot on newer Rangers, so the procedure could be different. 90% of ECUs (computer) that are sent to places that are 'bad' are usually fine, tested and re-sold. I bought a used 90 ECU for my 88 to convert it to MAF, and I can't imagine what that has been through. It was half full of sand as well, being from Southern California.... FYI: Pinging = bad. You need to get that fixed ASAP.

The air/fuel ratio doesn't seem to be correct, but I cannot verify this. When the pinging is at it's worse, and you have a chance to let it cool off a little, take a look at the spark plugs and see if it's running lean. If it is, then a sensor is not working correctly, causing your air fuel mixture to not have enough fuel. This is why I say MAF. The MAF tells the engine how much air is entering the engine so that it can calculate how long to open the injectors for. If these get dirty, they start reading less air, causing less duration on the injector solenoid to be open. But it might be something different. The codes should be scanned for any electrial faults. Timing advanced too far could be an issue as well.

Edit: Another thought I had on the new PCM.. A new PCM has to adjust to your truck. In other words.. There are values that are saved from the last run that are reused. The pining coming back could have just been an issue with the computer recalibrating itself like it's supposed to and the original problem was never fixed in the first place.

Just some thoughts..
Pete

[tjr1000]

Thanks for the ideas. The regular fuel in Denver is all 85 octane and I believe it always has 10% ethanol, because of the emissions laws. Should I try going to the midgrade 87? This is what the dealer suggests. I want to make sure the problem is really solved before the 36K warranty expires. I get the feeling the dealer is trying to blow this off until they don't have any warranty obligation.

I also have seen the suggestion of the 180 degree thermostat on a discussion of dodge dakotas. I guess these have chronic problems with pinging.

Another thing I noticed is that the ping came back just as the summer temperatures arrived.

[2000mudder]

wow your gas is 85 octane? whats the recomended octane for your truck? i wouldn't run anything lower than 87 octane. a 180 thermostat should help if it's pinging when its warm. they reformulate gas for the summer so it's possible you could run the lowwer octane in winter but i would stick with one octane. your computor has to adjust when you change octanes and will rum much more consistant if you stick to one station and one octane!

[tjr1000]

Thanks Mudder. I'll have to recheck the book recommendation for the 2004 Ranger. The regular here is lower octane than the book suggests for every vehicle I have owned so far. I figured it was something about the altitude, but across the border in New Mexico, at nearly the same altitude, the regular fuel is 86 or 87 octane, so I don't understand it.

I have tried to consistently buy the same brand from the same station- Amoco for the last 8-9 months. The ping is really bad with no name gas.

Will talk to the dealer about getting the 180 degree thermostat.

[way2old]

Have a close look at the MAF sensor also. A lot of times cleaning the tiny sensing wires inside the MAF will cure the problem. They get dirty and the baro reads wong and will cause a ping.

[1994RangerMan]

i had the same problem, also refered to as a spark knock. i tried everything and turns out that the plugs were not gapped correctly and it was the source of the whole problem.. something to check anyways.

[tjr1000]

Well Psychopete and way2old were right. This did turn out to be a problem with the MAF sensor. I tried higher octane fuel for awhile, and it seemed to help, but the ping problem came back. I took the truck back to the dealer and insisted they figure something out. It took them 2 days and and a lot of tests, but eventually their senior tech discovered the MAF sensor was bad (the first guy who checked it out was ready to conclude there was no problem).

So we'll see how it goes. It has taken nearly a year to get this problem resolved. I eventually had some pinging problems with my previous two small trucks, but not before they got to around 100k miles.

My thanks again for the suggestions posted. Without the comments from this board, I might have messed around with this for another year.

[way2old]

Thanks for the fix post. We like to know when a problem has been resolved. Good luck with the Ranger.