2002 expedition with poor acceleration

[kimmilauren]

I have a 2002 expedition with a 4.6 v-8 and the "overdrive" light does'nt work. When I turn overdrive off the "off" light does work. At the same time that the overdrive light quit working it started to lose power when accelerating (almost like a miss). Truck idels fine. Overdrive seems to work o.k. except for the light. When driving in town I can shift into 2nd gear and theres no hesitation or miss. I'm thinking that the overdrive switch has gone bad but would like another opinion from someone more qualfied that myself before I go buy a switch. Thanks, Kim

 

[seeker]

Question

Can you feel the truck shift into the overdrive gear?
If so then the problem is probably just a light gone out.
Not much to worry about there.

With a misfire and poor acceleration, you might take it to
a parts store and see if they will pull any codes for you.
lots of things could be causing poor acceleration. eliminate the codes first.

 

[kimmilauren]

It's shifting into overdrive. About a week before this started the "engine light" came on and it started missing (worse than it is now.) We had the codes pulled at autozone and it said that it had a miss fire on the #2 cyl. Later we unpluged the coil on the 2nd cyl. and there was'nt any difference in the way it ran (it still missed.) We replaced the plug and it stoped missing and we disconnected the battery and the "engine light" went out and has'nt came back on since. When it started missing this time we went to each cyl. and unpluged the coil, the engine started to miss, Otherwise motor runs smooth at an idel. Kim.

 

[huklebuk]

I would replace the coil packs and all plugs before you have a real problem. Use only motorcraft plugs. I learned this from experience and blew a plug out. Luckily it was fixable with a helicoil. I had a number two misfire and replace all the coil packs and its been fine ever since. The coil packs seem to start having problems around the 90k-100k mark.

 

[seeker]

Agreed

Replace the coil pack. Known problem with these trucks. I have replaced 4 of them. And yes the first time it happened i thought the trans was acting up. I replace the coil and the plug at the same time. Since mine is a 2002 i prefer to use ngk plugs. 2003 and newer seem to have a problem with plugs cracking and separating.