2005, check engine light slow blink then solid again after hard acceleration?

[Motorcity muscle]

Inside of the coil pack there's a male spade connection that has a spring between the spade and the spark plug. Had corrosion on couple of mine was able to clean it and coat with die-electric grease.

 

[Johnathan M]

Here's a code reader for $33.00. It has worked well for me. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073XKQQQW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You do need a smart phone to use it. You can download one of many free apps to use with it to read the codes. One that I've used and like is simply called Car Scanner. I paid a few dollars to get the pro version and get some additional features. Some of the apps also let you monitor the vehicle while you're driving to see which cylinder is misfiring and how often it is misfiring. I had an 05" Expedition till a month or so ago, and I dealt with misfires many times. However for me it was never the spark plugs (I did change them while I owned it - fortunately I didn't break any of them off in the process). It was always either a coil pack that was bad, or more often than that it was just a bad connection between the coil and the spark plug. There is a spring inside the black rubber boot (it's connected to the coil) that makes the connection between the coil and the spark plug. I found if I took the coil off, removed that rubber boot, and put dielectric grease on both ends of that spring, and then put everything back together, that would usually take care of my problem. It would last maybe a year till the grease started to dry out, then I would have to do it again. Also, I had changed all my coils at one point, so I had spares lying around. If I found a cylinder misfiring, I could just swap it out with another coil and see if that took care of the problem. Every time that I had the symptom you described, it was a misfire problem. However, if it misfires bad enough, the engine light will not only flash, but the engine will go into "limp" mode and you won't have much power till the light stops flashing.

Alternatively, if you don't have any spare coils laying around, and you want to know whether it's the plug or the coil, you can swap coils around and see if the misfire moves with the swap. For instance, if cylinder 4 is misfiring, swap that coil with the one on cylinder 3. It's very easy to do that unless it's the coil way in the back on the passenger side. If the misfire then happens on cylinder 3 instead of 4, then you know it's the coil rather than the spark plug. If the misfire continues on cylinder 4, then you know it's the spark plug. But make sure you grease up the ends of the springs while you're doing that to eliminate that possibility as well. Hope this helps!

 

[Johnathan M]

I will add that ForScan has a code reading app for smartphones. I downloaded it but haven't used it yet. However, I have used ForScan for Windows to read codes and make modifications to my vehicle, and that is a great program, so I would assume their app is good as well.

 

[zoldos]

Here's a code reader for $33.00. It has worked well for me. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073XKQQQW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You do need a smart phone to use it. You can download one of many free apps to use with it to read the codes. One that I've used and like is simply called Car Scanner. I paid a few dollars to get the pro version and get some additional features. Some of the apps also let you monitor the vehicle while you're driving to see which cylinder is misfiring and how often it is misfiring. I had an 05" Expedition till a month or so ago, and I dealt with misfires many times. However for me it was never the spark plugs (I did change them while I owned it - fortunately I didn't break any of them off in the process). It was always either a coil pack that was bad, or more often than that it was just a bad connection between the coil and the spark plug. There is a spring inside the black rubber boot (it's connected to the coil) that makes the connection between the coil and the spark plug. I found if I took the coil off, removed that rubber boot, and put dielectric grease on both ends of that spring, and then put everything back together, that would usually take care of my problem. It would last maybe a year till the grease started to dry out, then I would have to do it again. Also, I had changed all my coils at one point, so I had spares lying around. If I found a cylinder misfiring, I could just swap it out with another coil and see if that took care of the problem. Every time that I had the symptom you described, it was a misfire problem. However, if it misfires bad enough, the engine light will not only flash, but the engine will go into "limp" mode and you won't have much power till the light stops flashing.

Alternatively, if you don't have any spare coils laying around, and you want to know whether it's the plug or the coil, you can swap coils around and see if the misfire moves with the swap. For instance, if cylinder 4 is misfiring, swap that coil with the one on cylinder 3. It's very easy to do that unless it's the coil way in the back on the passenger side. If the misfire then happens on cylinder 3 instead of 4, then you know it's the coil rather than the spark plug. If the misfire continues on cylinder 4, then you know it's the spark plug. But make sure you grease up the ends of the springs while you're doing that to eliminate that possibility as well. Hope this helps!

Thank you for the detailed info! I bought the truck the middle of last year and this is the second misfire. I am planning on getting it fixed and then replace all the spark plugs. I know almost nothing about fixing vehicles, so I'm only driving it when absolutely needed and taking it to the shop ASAP....

 

[Rickybobby007]

Been there,cut out downstream cats and change plugs, you'll be amazed

 

[zoldos]

Cool, thanks!