Carbon Build Up

MELLE33

MEMBER
FORD EXPEDITION

Hi, I have a 1998 Ford Expediton 137796 miles and 6.2 engine. My first problem is the check engine light won't come off no matter how many times I take it to the mechanic. Every mechanic is telling me something different and I'm paying a lot for all of these problems and the check engine light is still on. The one that ended it for me because its so expensive is I was told that it was my catalytic converter. Now I said "another evil lie" so I took my truck to my teenage son's school so his teacher can run a diagnostic test for me, plus it was free, yay. He said its not the catalytic converter. He said the machine is reading a carbon carbon buildup in the emissions system but not the converter. Does this make any sense to you? If so can you tell me what to do or have done. With all of these probems my truck sound like a 18 wheeler diesel, its so loud. Sometimes I have to turn it off to talk to people outside of the truck. Plus its shakes so bad when I'm just waiting for the light to turn green. It shook so hard one day I thought we were having a earth quake, by the way, I live up north, there are no earthquakes.I'm a single mom with four kids so a lot of the repairs I do myself just to save money, is this something I can do? Someone please help me! I have a big family I need my Expedition :

2 Replies

POOR BOY

MEMBER
1 POST

I sympathize with you.I too have an expedition.97 with over 200,000 miles. When I experienced missing of the engine I took it to a local garage that had on staff a former ford mechanic with the appropriate plug in computer. He was super knowlegable and told me the engine light was on because #7 cylinder was misfiring. Not burning all the gas clean and the residue was fouling the plug. And he said when the engine light is blinking (it does that sometimes) he said one of the catalytic converters was being damaged. He said there are 4 (or did he say5) converters on that machine. He said that will be $35.00 for the diagnosis and if I could leave it he would replace the plugs etc for about $400. I thanked him and paid the $35. Bought a spark plug and replaced #7 and it worked fine for a month or so. Now its missing again and I'm trying to figure out how to change all the plugs.I'm not a mechanic so take this answer with the proverbial grain of salt. Good Luck.