pj ranger 2008,auto,purchased late 2009 at 11000km

[Ford victim]

Just found comments from phil june 2014 re ranger going into limp mode. I have had an ongoing problem of this kind for 6 years. Have been fobbed off by dealers and ford a number of times. they say no one else has these problems, cant find anything wrong. As it happens intermittently mainly,when towing a 1.5 tonne food van or a 2.4 tonne caravan it would be hard if not impossible to replicate the problem when at the dealers work shop. when it happens their is no power and top speed can be 60 to 70kph, and is a traffic hazzard. sometimes it maintains the problem for 50km/ 70 or 100km. sometimes it corrects itself after stopover, or it might rectify itself at any time.
In 2015 travelling from Karumba to the east coast,after leaving Normanton it went into limp mode and 60 to 65kph was the top speed reached all the way to Mt Surprise. next morning same thing all the way to the top of the ranges.stopped for lunch at Ravenshoe and planted the foot as we approached a hill, and suddenly it took off like a racing car, and had to lift the foot off the accelerator and found the performance you would expect. All the way back to southern victoria over the next 3 weeks with no problem
There seems to be no indication as to why this intermittant problem occurs so randomly.A few weeks, a few days, or a few hours.I had given up, but I will try again to talk sense into a dealer armed with this information re fuel pump.
Part of the reason this has dragged on for so long is the fact I had serious health problems in the the 2 years of warranty that was left after this problem started, and the ute was parked up for a lot of that time.
PS> 20lt per 100km towing.,12lt per 100km normal, and I am not heavy on the foot

 

[Meanderthals]

Good luck with that. I understand the frustration but at least ours only lasted 2 months from first happening to having no problem. I only found one other person online with the same model vehicle having a probable same problem. He was in Canberra and therefore had problems in getting the car warm enough to bring on the fault. Ford there even went as far and insisting that the long range fuel tank be replaced, at Customers expense and effort, before they would look at it further as they weren't sure that it wasn't something to do with a possible restriction in the fuel line. Problem was he no longer had the original tank. Have not heard back from him as to outcome. It was from this that when I just had an ARB larger tank fitted I made sure I kept the original. With ours it was only taking 20 minutes to bring on the fault and was therefore easily repeatable in out tropical heat.

 

[bigcol]

can you get a scan gauge and hook it up

it "should" give you the reason for it going into "Limp Mode"
or atleast the fault code

armed with this, you can then fault find it

 

[Ford victim]

can you get a scan gauge and hook it up

it "should" give you the reason for it going into "Limp Mode"
or atleast the fault code

armed with this, you can then fault find it

 

[Ford victim]

thanks, did that in townsville (not Mackay as posted earlier) in 2013, no faults showed up and had no trouble all the way home. Tend to suspect hooking up to scan device resets computer., was not at a ford dealer, was a diesel specialist ,Have also tried disconnecting battery for 15 minutes to attempt a reset a few times but no result.

 

[Ford victim]

Good luck with that. I understand the frustration but at least ours only lasted 2 months from first happening to having no problem. I only found one other person online with the same model vehicle having a probable same problem. He was in Canberra and therefore had problems in getting the car warm enough to bring on the fault. Ford there even went as far and insisting that the long range fuel tank be replaced, at Customers expense and effort, before they would look at it further as they weren't sure that it wasn't something to do with a possible restriction in the fuel line. Problem was he no longer had the original tank. Have not heard back from him as to outcome. It was from this that when I just had an ARB larger tank fitted I made sure I kept the original. With ours it was only taking 20 minutes to bring on the fault and was therefore easily repeatable in out tropical heat.

thanks for encouragement will approach new dealer principal with your experience, that was in progress just prior to my attempts to resolve issue that does not exist, (in the eyes of the dealers and ford )

 

[bigcol]

one of the reasons why I LOVE mechanical diesel engines over electronic ones

I dont have, nore have I used a scan gauge, but my understanding of them would be that they cannot "reset" the computer on hooking them up
I may be 100% wrong, but I dont see how they can

the advantage of the scan gauge is that it plugs into your computer, to enable you to read real time activity, as well as access the fault logs, and clear the faults

now, if it was re-setting the computer, it would still have the fault logs

just trying to understand the problem, it sounds similar to Phils problem

was it a scan gauge
or
the test gauge at the diesel specialist?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ScanGaug...828771?hash=item3a962ff623:g:754AAOSw~OVWvhgc

 

[Ford victim]

Good luck with that. I understand the frustration but at least ours only lasted 2 months from first happening to having no problem. I only found one other person online with the same model vehicle having a probable same problem. He was in Canberra and therefore had problems in getting the car warm enough to bring on the fault. Ford there even went as far and insisting that the long range fuel tank be replaced, at Customers expense and effort, before they would look at it further as they weren't sure that it wasn't something to do with a possible restriction in the fuel line. Problem was he no longer had the original tank. Have not heard back from him as to outcome. It was from this that when I just had an ARB larger tank fitted I made sure I kept the original. With ours it was only taking 20 minutes to bring on the fault and was therefore easily repeatable in out tropical heat.

thanks for encouragement will approach new dealer principal with your experience, that was in progress just prior to my attempts to resolve issue that does not exist, (in the eyes of the dealers and ford )

 

[Ford victim]

not sure what type of test,diesel man in townaville (not mackay as posted earlier) did, but ford dealer did not admit to any faults when they checked it previously. will report in after I see new dealer and try again, would like to resolve as i would llke to do darwin and down west coast this year

 

[bigcol]

okies, I just found this, it may be of some help to you

http://www.ozstock.com.au/17814

you download the App to your phone, and can monitor you beastie - plug n play

I have one here somewhere (lost in the bowls of the "toy room / spare parts black hole", but I dont have electronic diesel, so its no good to me

 

[benmat]

Not on a Ranger, but I had an issue similar on my Prado on the way back from Coral Bay a few years back. Could just do 100 with no trailer and struggled to do 80-85 towing. Car was very sluggish and felt like I was driving into a huge headwind...but then it would be ok for a bit here and there.

No fault codes (I have a scan gauge) and horrible fuel economy.

Toyota had the car for 2 days when I got back to keep looking for the issue and ended up being a $38 part. It was a cracked MAF filter (or something like that). It was effecting air flowing on to the sensor and not allowing the turbo to come up to boost.

 

[Ford victim]

thanks for replies, re 2008 ranger,found invoice for fault scan and check up at townsville 3 yrs back but copy of scan was not enclosed.
Local dealer did not give me any details when they looked at it.just denied their was any issues with rangers,claimed they checked with ford.also as I said previously they did not invoice me for their so called investigations into the issue. With info gained from this site I will be more informed when I approach new local dealer principal as my first move to flush out the truth of their cover up,
When I heard the previous dealer was leaving I rang him to arrange to meet with him to obtain a rundown of what they had done to trace faults and help me, he said to see his service manager, I said no, I wanted to see him. He said NO!! and slammed the phone down.(FORD SERVICE!!)
Interestingly, when the intercooler blew up at around 20,000k.Before I asked them to talk to ford, they quoted the job at $600.
As it was still under warranty I asked, and they agreed to talk to ford.after I had dropped it off.
When I had it towed in they repeatedly told me it would cost $600. and when I picked it up the invoice was for $830.29, and the ford contribution was $234.82 so I paid $595.57..Shows they know how to look after themselves.
I am new to this type of communication so forgive me if I dont reply to some posts , but will let you know if I make any progress with ford. will go to dealer next week

 

[Ford victim]

Have seen new dealer,keen to be helpful and sympathetic to my past treatment. got back to me after some inquiries and said could not find info re similar problems, including ford. I did tell him (phild) had a ford case manager for a similar issue.. and as he is near darwin it would be reasonable to assume he took his ranger to a darwin dealer, therefore that Ford case manager would have a considerable amount of knowledge that could help my issue. As there is only one 3.0 lt(not 3.2 originally posted) 4 cylinder motor( in the 2008- 2015 rangers it would not be hard to track down that info,(if they wanted to).
The prospect of spending a couple of thousand dollars letting the dealer investigate and fit a new fuel pump would be throwing good money after bad.
As I am not prepared to risk problems on our proposed trip this year ,Southern vic.up west side of flinders ranges, possibly king ash bay, Darwin,kakadu, and down to perth and back to victoria. It looks like I will have to buy a new ute and fit it out with the boat loader in a short time frame..
Unfortunatlley it appears the new ranger looks to be good.but am reluctant to go ford again.currently looking at toyota/mazda/nissan as well .But all seem to have some drawbacks as well. The multitude of options between brands, a confusing issue
Dealers will not give a true change over, or outright price unless I say I will buy from them there and then, on the day. Quoting "Recommended retail price" only.

 

[bigcol]

I hate cars sometimes

but I hate tossers that work for Stealers more

 

[peterg]

Dealers will not give a true change over, or outright price unless I say I will buy from them there and then, on the day. Quoting "Recommended retail price" only.

Pretty sad when the dealer wont discuss their best price to win a sale! My daughters partner played the Toyota dealer in Canberra against my Toyota dealer in Warrnambool and lower the 200 series GXL. Canberra couldn't go below $89k on the first meeting and once they compared prices and followed up with phone calls the price dropped to $83k to match mine.

Keep at the b@#$ds.

 

[Ford victim]

Re 2008 xlt ranger......In desperation , decided to contact ford and explain my issues re going into limp mode, which by the way occurred towing a 1.4t. box trailer on work excursions last 2 weekends.ford are giving me a case manager, will be interesting to see if any good comes out of this. In case anyone is wondering why I have left this action so long, I did have serious health issues for almost 2 years, just when the issues started, and a bust up, with the previous local dealer, whom has been replaced by one that is more agreeable and may assist me even though he has been bogged down by lack of info being passed on to him in the self protecting system he works under. Probably should not be making comment at this stage, but as anything I have said is based on the truth. Something I find hard to come by, re my issues so far.

 

[MickL]

@Ford victim I know this might sound like a strange question but what sort of brake controller do you have fitted in your car?

Reason I ask is I had similar issues with my Triton when I first got it when it would go into Limp mode for no reason when I was towing a trailer etc. Had it in and out of dealer and was having massive issues getting them to sort it out when it was suggested to me that it could be a faulty brake controller causing the issue.

Anyway, turns out that was the cause of the issue. I'm not sure if your car will have the same safety feature but the triton has a feature that puts the car into limp mode if the brake and accelerator pedal are pushed at the same time.

Basically the controller was faulty and was somehow causing the car to think I was pushing the brake in when driving along and as a result was causing the car to go into limp mode. Once worked out the controller (prodigy P2) was replaced and been perfect since.

Anyway might be worth a look and you should be able to replicate by holding down the manual over ride switch or possibly applying brake and accelerator at the same time to see if the car reacts the same.....

 

[Ford victim]

thanks for your interest, MckL. As the issue started before I had a brake controller fitted I dont think that would be my problem. I was towing a 1.3t food trailer for some time prior to the caravan. Also it happens occasionally when I am not towing, but not as noticable, usually around 90kph and you try to increase speed for a hill or just to bring it uo to 100kph. and it feels as though you are towing a parachute.
i feel phil near darwin is on the ball with the fuel pump temperature issue. I only found his issue on this site a few weeks ago. My first good lead over 4 years, to encourage me to renew action with ford
apparently my newly appointed case manager at ford will be in contact with me after he or she makes some enquiries, possibly in 4-5 days.
I will suggest the case manager considers your issue as another possibility.
My major concerns are safety on the road, possibility of breakdown in remote areas, and being forced to buy a new ute much earlier than I need to, as I will go crazy if i have to do another trip with those issues.Like me you must be crazy to be on the computer at 1.44 am.

 

[MickL]

Like me you must be crazy to be on the computer at 1.44 am.

no worries mate. Not sure I'm totally crazy although my wife may argue that point, just a shift worker so always awake at weird hours. Hopefully you can get to the bottom of the problem. I know how frustrating it is and how it changes the confidence you have in your car....Good luck.

 

[Ford victim]

RE 2008 ranger going into limp mode, just lost all I had written , here goes again. contact with ford case manager was a waste of time as I thought it would be. She was sorry I had issues but ford would not recognise a fault unless a ford authorised mechanic was present to observe and confirm fault. At $100 dollars plus per hour I dont think I could afford to take a mechanic on a trip which could last from 100km up to 3000km plus for the fault to occur. As the consumer affairs info states, car manufacturers will prolong investigations in any way possible to get you to give up.
One thing I did find out was, re my blown intercooler incident at 30000km , After being told at least 4 times before, and after taking it in to be repaired the price was $600, and again when advised it was ready to pick up. Before paying I asked what ford had to say about the issue, the service manager said they had not contacted them( I had asked them to ring ford as it was just inside warranty) When he came back from the phone and computer he presented me with a account for $837/87c. with a discount noted in handwriting saying $237.87 ford contribution/ As I have previously stated I was told it was to be $600, before ford was contacted. THE FORD case manager told me ford had not contributed anything toward this incident at all. She suggested the dealer may have discounted out of his pocket,( that is the previous dealer, to the present one)
I think I will give up, other wise I will probably go crazy, worrying about this matter. I will spend a bit of time over the next few months posting on other car forums about the importance of pestering dealers and manufacturers, promptly, about matters you know are not right, until they fix it up.
I will report my ranger as a faulty and possibly dangerous vehicle to consumer affairs. Rightly or wrongly I have ordered a new ranger as I feel it will be best for what I want.