2017 Ford Ranger - Overheating - HELP!

erad · Guru

2017 Ford Ranger - Overheating - HELP!

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Auto ? Turbo diesel ? Is it kicking down as it should ??

msg · Guru

As I was told today, If you don't change the coolant regularly it can cause overheating.

diggerop · Senior Member

2017 Ford Ranger, don't think it would be due for any fluid changes yet.

How many klm's on it ?

macka17 · Guru

Any small Auto Ute or otherwise.
Towing decent loads in uneven territory. Will always be better with some sort of Converter lock up,
or a transm modern enuff to lock in all gears.

Converter slip will cause ALL to overheat fairly quickly.
But mainly the transm.

A Manual holding in too high a gear will cause donk to overheat.

Bullbar and all the other crap on front Also. and loaded to hilt with van and\or itself.

Lots of reasons.

Best idea is take a run up that hill with car by itself FIRST..
leave van somewhere. servo etc.

See how it goes.
If ok. Drop van on back then do it again.

Make sure your vehicle Itself. ISN'T the problem b4 you go further

Otherwise you could be chasing your tail.

Have fun

erad · Guru

Sorry _ I should have made it a bit clearer. It is an auto and from what my friend said, the transmission lights were not flashing so I assume it was engine related - not transmission. He panicked when it suddenly stopped. The engine was still running but no power. It was obviously in limp mode, but limp mode doesn't allow you to tow a juggernaut up Brown Mountain. He turned the A/C off and that caused everything to fog up. It was raining, foggy just on dusk. Stopping on a single lane road (double line as well) - not good. He let it cool down and then tried again but only got 200 - 300 m each time. It is a long way up Brown Mountain. His phone didn't work either - I'll have to check mine when I next go up and down the Brown.

The local dealer has the car now and they have replaced a sensor in the engine as a precaution. They couldn't find anything wrong. I still suspect the fan viscous coupling but the only way to try it is to take the van down & up Brown mountain again. He is going to do that this weekend. I know that my viscous coupling is working because I came up the Brown and the temperature didn't go above 90 Deg C and I could hear the fan working, but I am towing a much smaller van than he.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Hi erad, I don't know how your friend drives his Ranger but I drive my 8 speed 2.4ltr auto in manual mode when towing our 2.6T van. On climbs I use the Tacho to keep within the peak torque range (2000/2500revs) I use the paddle shifts on the wheel to drop gears when the revs climb too high. I might begin the climb in 7th and be down to 4th or 5th at the top but I haven't dropped that much speed and the temperature gauge hasn't moved. Those that own the bigger more powerful tugs probably wouldn't even notice anything on the back when climbing but using a smaller less powerful vehicle you really have to utilise it's power and gearing sensibly in order not to overwork it. I don't even know if the Ranger auto has the option to drive it manually but I believe that most of the autos do these days.

-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 9th of March 2017 11:28:51 AM

CC Bear · Senior Member

It is a know problem in some rangers head over to this site and use the search option as there is a bit on the problem www.newranger.net/forums/index.php.

CC Bear · Senior Member

Sent you a PM Cheers

Moonraker · Senior Member

Firstly I would fit a scangage set to read TFT and water temp. cost about $80 to $100. I would expect it would then need to be driven in manual mode. Driving in D is likely to cause the trans fluid to over heat especially towing heavy van on hilly roads.
Most dual cabs that have a stated max 3.5T tow capacity in reality can only tow 2.6T max. Once setup for touring.

PeterD · Guru

macka17 wrote:
Converter slip will cause ALL to overheat fairly quickly.
But mainly the transm.

A Manual holding in too high a gear will cause donk to overheat.

Agreed, I first found this in my Disco TD5. It was reluctant to drop back into 1st gear on hills where bends kept your speed down below 50 km/h. My lights would start to display. I now select a gear to keep my engind revs over 3,000 RPM. In addition the temp gauge does not rise when you do that. Our small diesel engines are designed to rev fast, after all they do not dvelop their maximum power at less than 4 - 4,500 RPM. If running our motors would be harmed by running them near the red line then the manufacturers would put the red line further down the rev range.

Fringe Dweller · Senior Member

If this is a 2017 model . GIVE IT a chance to run in.

Remember in the old days when we had to wait for vehicles to warm up . ESPecially autos.

If it is a diesel it won't want to boogie until it has about 40 to 50k on th clock.

imho.

macka17 · Guru

About roight Pete.

My Patrol 3 ltr Manual. I dropped a cog whenever rev's hit 2200ish and dropping.
And I never had a heavy foot.
Let the rev's do their thing without a pedal to the metal syndrome.

This little D_max Auto 4 spd used to shuffle t'ween 3 and 4 near tops of decent climbs.
Towing van.

A converter Lock up fixed that. Just pick which cog you want and it stays there.
UP and DOWN.
Best thing I put on my little toy.

Woody n Sue · Guru

I'm a bit old school the first thing I would do is replace the thermostat been many an engine cooked by them failing .

Woody

iana · Guru

Funny know one has mentioned selecting "S" mode with the Ranger when towing?

macka17 · Guru

"S" ??????. (manual select?)

diggerop · Senior Member

erad wrote:
Sorry _ I should have made it a bit clearer. It is an auto and from what my .

"S" ??????. (auto select)

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Sport mode in some auto's ..

iana · Guru

Stop being idiots! the manual for the Auto transmission on the Mazda / Ranger advises to tow in S mode ---- Sports mode.

We had a problem with a Ranger 2.2 manual, and it went into limp mode with no power, a hole had been chaffed through the bottom of the intercooler hose, This is testing my memory, and if more info is required I will have to go back to the records.

macka17 · Guru

4 spd. Converter lock up.
Tow, generally in 4. when rev's drop near 22
2300, I dropdown to 3 and carry on.
On a fewoccasionssecond.
But not often.

Towing with Auto's. No matter what make.
I reckon that Converter Lockup is a "should be there" item.
Specially for downhill.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Its the turbo working hard in high gears.. Not working well with auto.. The ECU doesn't know there a 3 ton van being towed!!
With high load the turbo works overtime to maintain speed.. A few RPM helps and limits turbo to point working hard at lower RPM.. A little different to N/A [ naturally aspirated] diesels engines in old days.. mid RPM on lighter throttle gives better fuel consumption, more combustion per minute but at way less cylinder pressures due to turbo engine!!!

erad · Guru

Well. Mate made it up the Brown Mountain today with his van. It only took him 2 hours this time instead of 3 before. My pajero does it in 15 minutes. It obviously overheated again and shut down. Local dealer supposedly has a new fan cluch on order and it will be in town tomorrow. They tried to test it but it wasn't very warm when they did it. I would mostly have blanked off the radiator with some newspaper and then seen what happened when the clutch was supposed to click in, but they know it all... I would love to be a fly on the wall tomorrow when the car goes back to the dealer.

I don't know the weight of the caravan, but it is probably around 2.4 tonnes maximum, and the Ford is rate to tow 3.5 tonnes, so ther eis definitley something wrong there and it shoudl be fairly easy to find out what it is.... Meanwhile I suggest that you stay away from Brown Mountain for a weel or so until they fis this car. All this stuffing arouind is not good for my mate, and it certainly is not good for Ford. I know that I would be very circumspect about buying one...

-- Edited by erad on Monday 13th of March 2017 02:09:10 PM

Tony Bev · Guru

Hello erad

If you can let us all know what the final outcome is, that would be good, thanks

erad · Guru

Well, my mate made it up Brown Mountain last Monday with no trouble at all. The dealer replaced the viscous fan coupling and they also installed a larger transmission oil cooler. I reckon all they needed to do was to replace the coupling. My mate checked the fan when it was hot and he said that it turned easily, but the dealer said that it was the overheating sensor which had failed, so they replaced that. How could it have failed? The bloody thing shut the engine down so it was working OK (well maybe it may have been cutting in too early, but I doubt it). I question the technical ability of the dealer after this. Certainly I do not intend to buy a new Ford from that dealer. Thanks for all your replies - my mate appreciated the running commentary.

CC Bear · Senior Member

Did the dealer give a warranty cover when they installed the transmission cooler if not tell your mate to make copies of the work receipt which I trust shows that they installed the cooler. Ford do not cover the transmission if you install a transmission cooler during the warranty period.

Tony Bev · Guru

Thanks for the update erad, this info may well help someone else who has the same problem, in the future