tedallen
Active Member
I started experience a rough idle at start up, particularly if the vehicle had set for awhile, along with white smoke from the tail pipe about a month ago. Actually I started noticing an intermittent rough idle at startup for some time prior to the white smoke. About the time the white smoke started to get really bad, I received a P0133 code (oxygen sensor circuit slow response, bank 1, sensor 1). As I understand it, this would be the upstream sensor in the passenger side bank.
I should also mention that the rough running/misfire typically goes away within the first .25-.5 mile of driving, but occasionally I get a misfire/shaking after a longer period of driving, long after the point in time where the white smoke has quit being expelled.
Given the white smoke, my first fear was a head gasket leak. However, I got a loaner coolant combustion gas tester from AZ and it showed no indications of combustion gases in the coolant. I was suspicious that maybe the oxygen sensor had actually failed and was causing the PCM to default to on overly rich mixture in bank 1 to avoid a risk of burning valves with too lean of a mixture and that might be accounting for the rough idle and white smoke. However, in all the vehicles I have owned that had O2 sensors in them, I am yet to find one that actually had failed other than one where the wiring harness got damaged.
I also noticed that the white smoke had more of a fuel odor to me than that of coolant. I then found a YouTube link to a video showing a Ford 5.4 fuel injector that would leak into the cylinder with KOEO and was producing white smoke and rough idle. I am now wondering if this might be my issue. My vehicle now has over 315K miles on it and I have never replaced any of the fuel injectors.
Short of pulling the fuel rail loose and performing and looking for seeping fuel injectors and/or looking for any that might be spraying in KOEO as in the YouTube video, does anyone know of an easier or more reliable way to test for this condition? Given the vertically mounted and deeply recessed spark plugs, I'm not sure how viable it would be to try to remove plugs and check for raw fuel in the cylinders.
I'm still not 100% certain it isn't a head gasket issue, but I'm sure hoping it isn't. There is a small amount of coolant loss, but I know there is an external leak in the radiator plastic tank on the passenger side that doesn't always leak.
Here is the YouTube video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ARVK-ivf1g
Thanks,
Ted
I should also mention that the rough running/misfire typically goes away within the first .25-.5 mile of driving, but occasionally I get a misfire/shaking after a longer period of driving, long after the point in time where the white smoke has quit being expelled.
Given the white smoke, my first fear was a head gasket leak. However, I got a loaner coolant combustion gas tester from AZ and it showed no indications of combustion gases in the coolant. I was suspicious that maybe the oxygen sensor had actually failed and was causing the PCM to default to on overly rich mixture in bank 1 to avoid a risk of burning valves with too lean of a mixture and that might be accounting for the rough idle and white smoke. However, in all the vehicles I have owned that had O2 sensors in them, I am yet to find one that actually had failed other than one where the wiring harness got damaged.
I also noticed that the white smoke had more of a fuel odor to me than that of coolant. I then found a YouTube link to a video showing a Ford 5.4 fuel injector that would leak into the cylinder with KOEO and was producing white smoke and rough idle. I am now wondering if this might be my issue. My vehicle now has over 315K miles on it and I have never replaced any of the fuel injectors.
Short of pulling the fuel rail loose and performing and looking for seeping fuel injectors and/or looking for any that might be spraying in KOEO as in the YouTube video, does anyone know of an easier or more reliable way to test for this condition? Given the vertically mounted and deeply recessed spark plugs, I'm not sure how viable it would be to try to remove plugs and check for raw fuel in the cylinders.
I'm still not 100% certain it isn't a head gasket issue, but I'm sure hoping it isn't. There is a small amount of coolant loss, but I know there is an external leak in the radiator plastic tank on the passenger side that doesn't always leak.
Here is the YouTube video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ARVK-ivf1g
Thanks,
Ted