Hi all,
I am on a long road trip. My engine light started flashing and I started feeling a misfire. I'm getting a PO302. After start up, I now have P0302 and P0316. I've had coil packs go in this van and this doesn't feel like that. Rather than misfiring under load like a coil issue, it misfires under very light load but clears up under heavier load. It misses intermittently at idle. I've felt this misfire on startup before but it always cleared up fairly quickly. If you're going to tell me I should have checked this before I left, you are absolutely right. Stupid me just didn't think about it. The van is an 04 E150 clubwagon with 160,000 miles on it. It has the 4.6 I've owned this van for the last 80,000 miles. It's had oil changes every 5000 miles and I've had to replace coil packs as they have failed. It's had gas and air filters, but that's all the tune up work I've done to it. Any ideas of what the issue could be would help. BTW, the gas mileage is about 16mpg in mixed driving.

 

The worst code is P0316.You need to look into a fault with the crank or cam position sensor(s and associated wirring and connectors. I normally do not suggest part swapping but since you are on the road, you might want to replace those sensors.The P0302 could be coil pack, fuel injector or plug for cylinder # 2.You can try swapping those one at a time with another cylinder but again, you are on the road so I would try replacing the coil pack with an OEM unit.A manifold vacuum leak is also possible setting the P0302 but that's something you probably do not want to get into on the road somewhere.
If any of those suggestions do not help, you will probably need some shop repairs being on the road. Prolonged driving with a misfire problem can ruin your catalytic converter.

 

The coil pack would certainly be the easiest. I've done a few of them and I even keep a spare. I haven't touched the spark plugs because I've so many horror stories about breaking plugs off in the head or stripping threads on the 5.4. This is the 4.6 but I assume it's the same.

 

Un fortunately, your course of action won't do a thing for the worse code which is being set.

 

The coil pack fixed it. It was #2 which is the second one in from the front on the passenger side. A bit of a pain. I also discovered that the econolines didn't get the 3 valve engine with the worst spark plug problems. Since I'm on the road, I replaced only the coil pack and not the spark plugs. I'll do that when I'm home and not in a rush.

 

Some coils were troublesome, but the worst ones were the imported ones. If possible try to purchase coils that were made in the US.