2017 Ford Ranger - Overheating HELP!

[wasarangie]

Did the check engine light come "ON" ?

OJ.

I bet it did not come on, and it won't have left a code. Asked our neighbor techs and they confirm that the viscous is a problem and does not fail workshop tests, they fail in the field under load though. They also confirmed that some Rangers they see do not have all the updates when they are delivered. Advice is to contact Ford customer care and see what they say, Ford must approve the replacement of the viscous before the dealers will change it.

Still lean towards the module updates or viscous coupling.

[erad]

I am fairly sure that mate said that the check engine light did come on. The dealer said that they found a fault but could not identify what caused the fault. The chain of information is:
1 My mate
2 The dealer telling my mate some stuff
3 My mate telling me what he thinks the dealer said
4 Me posting it on this forum.

There is potential for misunderstanding or even lies at every level. Certainly my mate won't be telling lies - he is not that sort of man, but he has a 3 month old car which suddenly stopped in a very dangerous location in nasty weather conditions. He is justifyably upset about it and doesn't really understand what went wrong or even what could have gone amiss.

Mate said that he checked the fan and it spun fairly easily, yet the dealer reckons that the fan is OK. How stiff should the fan coupling be when it is supposed to be engaged? I know that the coupling still slips, but how much? My betting is still the fan coupling. To be fair to the dealer, it hasn't been very hot since he got back home and it is hard to test it properly. Even so, the temperature when it overheated was probably less than 20 Deg C. Imagine what it could have been (may still be?) if the temperatures were 40 Deg C. I reckon the dealer could check it by blanking off most of the radiator with a sheet of newspaper and then see how the coupling works. I wonder if they thought of that? The dealer stands to lose a valuable customer with this fiasco, and of course Ford also stands to lose another sale. He was happy with the Mazda and may well go back to one. Some enterprising person will buy a low mileage Ranger which may ovreheat, so he will go out and buy a new coupling and presto - he has a brand new vehicle for peanuts.

And Wasarangie: I don't know the hsitory of ECU updates etc - I doubt that my mate knows either. I do know that the dealer had a lot of trouble with the cruise control and they supposedly downloaded some settings from another working model - and that didn't work either. The term Incompetence comes to mind... The way they are proving their work is OK is to tell him to go out and drive down Brown Mountain and then come back up and see if it stops. That doesn't sound too technical to me - surely there is a better way. Anyway, that is what they are doing, so if you see a Grey Ranger towing a juggernaut on Monday stuck on the way up Brown Mountain, you will know who it is. Stop and help him if you can. I may even go out with my Pajero ready to take the van off him to get him home - that is what I was about to do last Saturday...

[Peterng]

2017 Ford Ranger - Overheating HELP!

My 2c again for what it's worth.
In the dealer changing components regarding the "cruise control" and trying to fix it, points to an auto gearbox problem.
Your mate, travelling on the flat "could" or may have put the Ranger on cruise control.
Anyway...
So in this case he would have been driving in D mode..pulling a van of over say 1500kg..say at 80kph, then put the cruise control on..not real good.
Ranger auto would have been chasing gears to maintain speed set by the cruise control..the gear box getting already hot..hits the inclines..whilst his ranger still in cruise control..not a pretty result... over heat error..limp mode.
So get your friend to drive whilst pulling weight over 750kg in the sports mode and treat the exercise like using a manual gear box.
If he is not confident in doing this, especially in traffic...teach him.
Get him to look at the rev needle, know his shift points in the Rangers power band..ie 2000 to 2800rpm change accordingly and he should get away without too much trouble.
Get him to read the Rangers Manual..max torque at so many rpms.
I think it may be a case of driver error and some inexperience.
Get him to do the exercises without weight..practice and then move on to adding towing weight.
It happens to all of us at one point in time..I've burnt a few clutches out in my time pulling a few heavy trailers and resting my foot on the clutch peddle.
If your are not confident in teaching him..their are some 4wd towing classes he could take.
The Ranger is a good vehicle..he just needs to learn how to use it properly when towing weight.
Those bloody advertisements on how dual can Utes can pull 3500kg vans and stuff...don't get me started.






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[wasarangie]

And Wasarangie: I don't know the hsitory of ECU updates etc - I doubt that my mate knows either. I do know that the dealer had a lot of trouble with the cruise control and they supposedly downloaded some settings from another working model - and that didn't work either.

The good stuff about both the Mazda and Ford is you can look at the ECUs and "play" with them. You just need some software, which is available as a download, and and it's plug and play. It's actually surprising what you can change on these vehicles.

Tell me has the active cruise ever worked? It was reported that it was thought to be fixed in another thread,, or is this another vehicle? Flashing the settings from another vehicle is just not right, you do not need to do that, the "settings" are available from Ford with the VIN details. As far as I know every dealer has the gear to do this. Even if anything interrupts the forward scan you can program this out of the scan. So antenna's bar work etc. can be allowed for. Something sounds odd here.

[erad]

Wasarangie:
The cruise control issue has always been there. The delaer reckons itis fixed, my mate says NO. Apparently it comes up with a message "Forward Control Collission Avoidance not available" or something like that. He can now use cruise control, but Collision Avoidance is not available. That is a side issue relevant to teh overheating, which I doubt has been rectified. Monday will tell....

[Peterng]

Another question:

Considering the reply that your mate uses the manual mode when towing.

In what (manual mode) gear was the vehicle in when the vehicle stopped dead?, can he remember?

[erad]

What gear did he use? No idea. Whatever, they are down the coast now for the weekend, coming back on Monday.

Now, for the clincher... I just had an amail from them saying that the local dealer has ordered a new fan clutch! What a good idea! It will be in town on Tuesday. All they have to do is to get up Brown Mtn on Monday.... I will be ready with my Pajero to go and get them if needed.

From what he said, it seems as if they have finally sorted the cruise control issue, but I am not holding my breath on that one either....

[Peterng]

Interesting..


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[bigpete]

I have a late 2016 Ford Ranger auto for work, have towed up to 2.5 tons no over heating issues to date, i only tow in manual mode. I average 4- 5,000km per month

I have noticed with new ranger viscous fan has 11 blades with high degree of pitch, and it pushes the hot air to the drivers side of the engine bay, especially when working hard at low speeds, I spend a lot of time off road with my work.
It gets to a stage I can't touch the quarter wing panel on the drivers side immediately behind headlight, the hot air pushes out between bonnet and wing guard, and the heat from turbo would also be adding to the temperature in the area, at normal highway speeds I think the hot air gets out under the vehicle and not an issue.

My previous Ranger, 2013 still current shape I didn't notice any issue and think they've changed blade pitch where previously the air went across whole engine not into one corner
There was a recall on previous vehicle to guard two small hoses directly behind fuel filter that rub together then fail letting radiator water out.

I have contacted ford who will look at it next time I'm near a dealer.

Cheers

[erad]

Well, Surprise: Mate made it up Brown Mtn this morning. 2 hours this time, instead of 3 last week. My Pajero does it in about 15 minutes easily. Gee the dealer must really know his stuff. Anyway, apparently they will have a new fan clutch in tomorrow, so we'll then see what happens. To be fair to them, they apparently did test it but it wasn;t very hot when they did it. Even so, a bit of newspaper in front of the radiator would restrict airflow and thus make things hot enough to test. Probably the dealer would forget it and the whole thing may stuff up then - who knowa. It will be interesting to hear what happens down there tomorrow.

[Peterng]

2017 Ford Ranger - Overheating HELP!

Very interesting.
It will be interesting to see the result of where the problem lies.
Spoke to a building contractor who has the 2016/7 model. It's about 6 months old and is auto 6 speed, he pulls a dual wheeled trailer around with about 1800kg all up.
He has had no problems with it. Pulls like a train.
I asked him about the cruise control...he doesn't use it..waste of the time up here in East Arnhem.
He always drives in manual mode whilst pulling the trailer and his boat.
He is more than happy.
It seems surprising to me that a radiator fan problem would throw the ECU into limp mode.



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[erad]

Haven't caught up with mate yet, but I saw his car parked outside the dealers, so he must have made it home and dropped his caravan off. I haven't seen a mushroom cloud from downtown yet, but I reckone there will bo one soon..... It is only a machine after all, and therefore it is prone to fail at some time, but mate doesn't see things that way. I still think it is lousy service from teh dealer though.

Peterng: Having an engine (or transmission?) overheating will defiinitely cause the beast to go into limp mode to protect the engine/transmission etc. The problem is to know which one it is. I initially guessed at the transmission, but mate says that Ford has upgraded all its Ranger fleet with this model and they all have good transmsssion cooling. Be interesting to see if indeed it is the transmission because replacing the fan clutch will not help this. If it is the fan clutch it was so easily replaced early in the peace and then it would eliminate the most obvious potential fault. As I said before, this is not good publicity for Ford. They should get someone who knows what is going on out here, and pronto.

[erad]

Well, I finally spoke with my mate. The beast stopped 8 times on the way up Brown Mountain. He took it to the dealer after dropping his caravan at home and left it there. They are going to replace the fan clutch AND install a heavier duty transmission oil cooler. Don't know who is paying for this but I am sure that it is not my mate. Next weekend may tbe the big test??? I reckon it will be OK.

[Peterng]

Well, I finally spoke with my mate. The beast stopped 8 times on the way up Brown Mountain. He took it to the dealer after dropping his caravan at home and left it there. They are going to replace the fan clutch AND install a heavier duty transmission oil cooler. Don't know who is paying for this but I am sure that it is not my mate. Next weekend may tbe the big test??? I reckon it will be OK.

The warranty will cover the work..
I would say the dealer is as frustrated as your mate over this matter in respect to the overheating and the Ranger stopping.
It looks like the dealer is covering his bases so to speak...with engine with the fan and transmission with the oil cooler.
Very Intriguing...

[Peterng]

I've just had a thought..
Sorry I do it sometimes..
The caravan break controller?
Who fitted it..Ford or third party or was it carried over from the previous vehicle?


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