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

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.