2010 Ford Ranger Pricing and Specs

Ford's popular PX Ranger (sold from 2011 until its replacement in 2022) marked a distinct move away from timing belt technology, but prior to that, the Mazda-sourced engine in your vehicle uses a rubber toothed timing belt. As such, this belt and its tensioners and idlers require replacement at regular intervals.

The recommended belt-change interval for this engine is 120,000km or six years, whichever comes first.

There’s a school of thought out there that says you shouldn’t tow anything heavy in an overdrive gear (such as fifth gear in your Ranger). That’s because the extra load of the trailer places huge stresses on the transmission via the gearing of that overdriven gear.

In the real world, the best advice is to avoid going uphill or into a headwind in overdrive, saving that fifth gear for downhill or flat running where you’re not loading the gearbox too much. You also need to be travelling at a speed where the vehicle is comfortable in fifth, not lugging along at low revs. This applies also to a four-speed automatic with an overdriven fourth gear, not just manual transmissions. Use the overdrive lock-out button to force the transmission back to third gear where it will be happier and less likely to be damaged. Be aware, too, that modern transmissions with six (or more gears) often have both fifth and sixth gear overdriven, not just the top ratio.

It could be the either the turbocharger or the injector pump at fault here. But equally, it could be an intake system blocked with oil and soot residue, a clogged exhaust system, worn or blocked fuel-injectors, a dirty air-filter, poor fuel quality. It could even be a dud sensor somewhere on the engine or even an electronic fault within the on-board computer. It might even be an engine that has worn out internals.

The first thing I’d do is interrogate the on-board computer to see if it offers up any fault codes that could be used to diagnose the problem. From there, it’s down to checking the mechanical stuff like the condition of the turbocharger (particularly its bearing) and even performing a leak-down and compression test to get an idea of the condition of the engine.