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Klausi

Maverick fluctuating cylinder pressure

My 2005 Ford Maverick diesel is throwing some interesting codes. I'm seeing fluctuating cylinder pressure, accompanied by higher fuel consumption, reduced engine power, and the check engine light. I've checked spark plugs and visually inspected the head gasket. Turbocharger seems to be spinning freely. Could this be a timing belt issue causing consequential errors?

4 comment(s)

uwe_schwarz4

When you say fluctuating cylinder pressure, are you seeing consistent variation across all cylinders, or is it isolated to one or two? If it's isolated, I'd lean more towards piston rings. Have you done a compression test?

Klausi (Author)

It appears to be primarily on cylinder 3, but there is a slight deviation on cylinder 4 as well. I haven't performed a compression test yet; I wanted to rule out any simpler fixes first. If it were piston rings, wouldn't I expect to see other symptoms, such as excessive oil consumption or blue smoke from the exhaust?

uwe_schwarz4

Ah, cylinder 3 being the primary culprit is telling. While piston rings can cause those symptoms, the pressure difference being focused on one cylinder suggests it could be a valve issue, potentially a burnt valve. You're probably looking at consequential damage from some other error. At this point, a workshop visit is probably a good idea.

Klausi (Author)

It turns out that a faulty sensor was causing a cascade of error codes. The sensor was replaced under warranty, so the repair cost was 0€. Thanks for the input!

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