Help please

[TJ Toronto]

Hello everyone,

I've noticed lately that my truck seems to be lagging a bit. It feels like I'm towing a heavy trailer but I don't tow anything ever. I'll get on the highway and it seems like it doesn't want to speed up. At the same time, it runs a bit rougher than it used to. I've had the spark plugs and wires changed about 1 year ago. Then more recently, the traction indicator comes on randomly. Please see the picture.
I'm not sure if this is connected somehow or not. Any insight to any of this would be much appreciated.
Thank you

 

[JExpedition07]

Have you had your coilpacks changed recently? if not I'd have those done. Also that traction control could be applying brakes when it shouldn't be if a sensor is faulting I recall this happening in a family members E-350 van I believe. Do you have excessive brake dust build up on rims as of recently? Could be dragging brakes as well.

 

[bobmbx]

Quick check: Measure the height all 4 tires. If there is greater than (IIRC) 1/16" difference between any two tires, that can cause the Traction Control to act weird. This is only if you have a 4x4 with the front wheels getting power.

 

[TJ Toronto]

JExpedition07;

I am pretty sure the mechanic changed 4 of the 8 coils. I remember them being quite expensive. I am not sure why he only changed half of them. That was almost 2 years ago. I have not noticed any unusual amounts of brake dust at all. When you say it could be dragging brakes, would that be caused by a faulty sensor or the brakes sticking?

Bobmbx;

This truck is 4x4. I will certainly measure the tires. Should I measure from the ground to the top of the tire, or, the top of the tire to the top of the wheel well?

Thank you guys for your reply!

 

[bobmbx]

bottom of tire to the top of the tire. thats one way, but doesn't take into account the weight difference between front and back (tire squish). The best way is to make sure all tires have the same air pressure, then lift each wheel off the ground then measure the height. And as long as its up in the air, measure the circumference of each tire. That measurement should not vary by 1/4" across all 4 tires.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

Hello everyone,

I've noticed lately that my truck seems to be lagging a bit. It feels like I'm towing a heavy trailer but I don't tow anything ever. I'll get on the highway and it seems like it doesn't want to speed up. At the same time, it runs a bit rougher than it used to. I've had the spark plugs and wires changed about 1 year ago. Then more recently, the traction indicator comes on randomly. Please see the picture.
I'm not sure if this is connected somehow or not. Any insight to any of this would be much appreciated.
Thank you

View attachment 21207

Before you do too much to it take it to an auto parts store and have them check to see if it is throwing any codes. That is the very first thing to do. If it has codes you can find out what the codes mean that that will tell you where to start looking; otherwise all you are doing is guessing and that's not a good way to start.

 

[TJ Toronto]

Bobmbx;

Thank you for letting me know how to do the measurements.

ExpeditionAndy;

That's something I will certainly do.
Thanks!

 

[JExpedition07]

Andy is right too if you don't have a code reader get that done, I always assume people have one. Anyway i asked about brake dust because usually if you have sticking brake calipers you will get a lot of dust on the rims, which you don't. The AdvanceTrac light going off is cause for concern because that system manages traction and stability through braking and if it thinks something is wrong it will apply the brakes to "maintain traction" but if something is faulting and it just applies brakes all the time it's just slowing you up. What you are experiencing that "always towing a trailer" feeling just puts on that coilpack light in my head because it only takes one of those to be bad to absolutely rob your truck of all its power. But as Andy said check for codes step one.

 

[TJ Toronto]

That's good to know. I didn't realize that coilpacks could make that much of a difference.
If I hit the reset button when the light comes on, it goes away. It happened quite a few times about 10 months ago. Then it went away and started to do this again the last couple weeks.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

If it is light a light on the dash then it is definitely logging a code in the computer. So once you get that or them you at least know where to start your investigation. Nothing is simple and if you don't have one you need a service manual to know what the troubleshooting steps are for your problem.

 

[Hayes Riviere]

Completely unrelated to the issue, but what year is your Expedition? I noticed yours has a speedometer that goes up to 200, which I thought was kind of weird. My 2013 goes up to 120, but I'm pretty sure the top speed is in the 110-120 range.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

Completely unrelated to the issue, but what year is your Expedition? I noticed yours has a speedometer that goes up to 200, which I thought was kind of weird. My 2013 goes up to 120, but I'm pretty sure the top speed is in the 110-120 range.

He's from Canada, the scale is in KPH, MPH is the secondary scale.

 

[TJ Toronto]

It's a 2009. And it is in km/h. However, in Ontario, there are governors on them. You can't go over 160 (100 mph) kph otherwise the engine cuts out. Not sure if that's something you guys have as well.

 

[Barjrob1972]

My best guess is that something is making your truck think it's in a 'lost traction' situation and killing power. You need to pull codes first, as Andy said. After that, check for mismatched tires, a locked brake(s) or something in the steering wheel. Even a bad alignment can cause this if your clockspring is out of alignment tolerance.