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Topic: Strong engine stumble (Read 4338 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Strong engine stumble

Reply #15
WOW!!! 
reading all this sounds just like what the year 2020 would be dishing out.

ive said it before,,,
these cars are getting to a point where they have exceed all engineering expectations and as time marches on, some of the things we never looked at before are starting to show up as the problem.

so.... put this one on your diy list of things to do..............
replace the three capacitors on your eec mother board sometime soon. 
even when these caps are somewhat bad, the eec still functions and the only results you get are odd ball intermittent problems.


Re: Strong engine stumble

Reply #16
so.... put this one on your diy list of things to do..............
replace the three capacitors on your eec mother board sometime soon. 
even when these caps are somewhat bad, the eec still functions and the only results you get are odd ball intermittent problems.

Any link or info on this and how to do it?  Thank you.
Mike

 

Re: Strong engine stumble

Reply #17
Beleive it or not, but I believe this to have been like this since I owned the car.

The entire time I've owned this car, its gotten bad gas mileage (between 20-25 freeway) and its had an intermittent stumble that I just couldn't find.

I have occasionally gotten an o2 code and even swapped out the side that had the issue twice. Both times I assumed that it was fixed because it seemed like the issue went away.

Even after I did my head gasket, it seemed to run better, but I was bummed that it still had a miss. I did a basic tune up on it and couldnt find anything wrong so I jist left it as is.

I've owned this car for about 3 1/2 years. In that time I've put around 120k on it. I though I knew it pretty well and had it pretty well figured out. In all that time, ive only been able to chirp the tires on wet pavement.

Not only does the stumble seem to be gone, but the intermittent issues as well. I haven't quite ran a full tank out of it yet, going to do that over the holiday weekend.

But it also seems to have all kinds of power down low. Up top feels about the same, but I can now spin a tire from a dead stop and keep it spinning.

I honestly believe that wire was messed up the whole time ive owned the car. It also had a brand new o2 sensor on that side when I bought it.

Its not perfect, feels like it might be pinging a bit at low rpms/high load, and feels like it needs a real tune up. Maybe its time to change the oil and air filters for the first time.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com


Re: Strong engine stumble

Reply #19
So I went out to the car and the battery was dead. I hooked up the jump box and didn't even try to start. Got out to cables and something was visibly on fire under the intake manifold near the rear bell housing.

Shut off the jump box and pulled the cable. I was able to blow out the visible flames. But I am at a complete loss. I've never had a car catch on fire, and the only wiring I could see In the area was the o2 sensor harness. Fuseable links don't appear to be melted. I am not going to have a chance to mess with it until next weekend. Gotta be in bed by 8 and up by 4:30 in the morning for work
The O2 heater should only have power when the ignition switch is in RUN.  May want to check the condition of the ignition switch.
The fuse link is the ignition switch power.