we have a slight pinging in our 98 EB Expy and i was wondering if we used 89 octane instead of the 87, which is suggested by the owners manual, if it would go away. i know i've heard this works but can you guys just reaffirm that for me? thanks!

 

Congrats on being the newest member of the PINGERS CLUB !

Yea youve probley heard all the pinging bs thats been going around. WHat ive done is run STP fuel injector cleaner through it, running it a little richer with the cleaner than reccomended. It helps make it run smoother and cleaner; might help your pinging to stop. Theres not a whole lot you can do. Search around here for artcles on pinging so you can look up a list of sensors to clean or replace--im about to get started on that this weekend


Hope you get it solved

ps slight pinging wont hurt. If it starts getting worse, take it to FORD

 

I would try the 89. It won't cost much and there is a good chance it will work.

You might also want to get the truck in for service if it hasn't already. Sounds like you may have other issues. Maybe O2 sensors? Could be a lot of things causing the pinging. 89 octane might get rid of the pinging but might also mask some other issue.

 

ok well its my mom's car so ill have a little chat with her about i....

 

oh yeah we have 44,000 miles on it. its not ready for a tune up

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I know Ford states 100K tune-ups but don't believe it. I usually have to change plugs every 40-50K because they start to misfire.

I agree 89 might help the pinging but it may just mask the rela problem. I know from personel experiance that when the EGR system starts getting a little clog they will ping. Mine use to ping pretty bad at times. When I changed the DPFE, cleaned the TB, and put a new EGR on all the pinging stopped even with 87. I did get pinging about a week ago but I'm pretty sure it was bad gas as I didn't get it at my usual place. Since my last refill it's all been smooth again.
Other causes of pinging on here have been the MAF, coolant temp sensor, 02's, dirty fuel system, bad or misprogrammed PCM, wires, plugs, and coils.

 

Pinging is a result of the manufacturers wanting to get the best fuel economy out of their vehicles. All engines spark knock to some degree before the knock sensor causes the timing to be moved back. My wife's Toyota Tacoma with a 3.4L V6 pings.................my 1999 F150 pings.

 

I've been running 91 and up octane since I bought the truck. And before the Superchip even. This is about 65 thousand miles give or take a few hundred. I haven't had anything happen to the truck in all this time. The IAC gets choked up every once in a while, causing an erratic idle, but a good cleaning cures it usually. I personally don't see a problem with using 89, but of course I'll probably get flamed for using 93 octane too The plugs and wires were done at 65k, and all I got was a slight throttle response improvement. That lead me to believe they weren't that bad off to begin with. I also only have a slight ping under load, but this only seems to be in certain temps.,,,,,98

Comp code FOU1, the dreaded pinger??

 

I used 89 octane gas to cure my problem with pinging for about a year. After a year the pinging came back with the 89 octane gas. About the only negative effect of useing a higher octane gas is that carbon deposits will form inside your engine quicker which will ultimately make your problem with pinging worse. I think BeenLaden's point of manufacturers wanting to get the best fuel economy out of their vehicles by advancing the timing as much as possible is the primary problem, not dirty sensors, spark plugs and everythign else... There are too many of us with issues with pinging with very low miles (in one case a few weeks back less than 1500 miles) for dirty sensors to be the primary problem. Personally, I think the computer is our problem... To date, the only person I'm aware of in the pingers club to permanently fix his problem was Ted'98 that did so by having a custom computer program made after trying just about everything else. If the issue was related to the state of tune of the motor, a brand new truck with less than 1500 miles would not ping!

 

Took the words right out of my mouth about the higher octance causing more carbon deposits. My truck had about 139K on it and after I cleaned the EGR system the pinging did receed quite a bit. Mine seemed to ping worse in cold weather while at higher RPMS (3500+). This is the opposite of most on here. There's does it when hot and under mid level load conditions.

I do agree that 99% of this is PCM programming to achieve the best fuel economy. You have to stop and think how in the hell does Ford make a truck that can run the heat of AZ but still run in the sub-zero temps of other places. So yeah a little pinging might be a expected I guess.

 

My issue is identical... I don't notice much pinging untell the winter comes around. During the summer I have no problems 95% of the time. When it does ping in the winter it's primarilly in the upper RMP range although occasionally I'll notice it in 4th (OD) while lugging on the bottom end... I've got friends with Chevies and Dodges with the same problem. For whatever reason I haven't heard of an issue with pinging on the new Tundras.. Must have something to do with that Lexus-derived motor.

 

Seafoam plus what KYFordFreak did. MAF cleaning, etc.
Jes

 

What kind of gasoline are you burning? I've heard a bunch of stories about low quality gas making engines ping. Try some Mobil gas and see if the problem stops.

 

We had a storm come through last night, and it was much cooler this morning than it has been lately. My truck pinged worse(pung?) than it ever had before. Once the engine had fully warmed up, it was gone. The only thing I've done differently lately is re-install the factory intake, complete with paper filter. Other than that, the weather change is all I can point to as the cause. I drove it earlier this evening, after the engine had completely cooled, and no pinging. Weird!,,,,98

 

Before you start fretting over this, invest about $8 in a bottle of Techron. Not the Injector cleaner WITH Techron, but the straight Techron. Follow the instructions and treat the engine. See if that doesn't get rid of the pinging. If it does, then do a second treatment and that should take care of the pinging for a long time. Check your oil. If it's black, change the oil and filter once you run through another tank of just gas.

Filling with higher octane just covers up the problem and eventually contributes to the problem making the fix harder and more complicated.