Vic is totally P*ssing me off right now....
The car is giving me a hassle. It's felt 'off' for the past few weeks. Last week I put a new battery in it when the prior one mysteriously instantly failed overnight and could NOT be charged again. That in itself is strange! The car hadn't been driven for nearly a week, then I started it four times on a Saturday to go to the store, to come home and wash it, then out to a movie with Tori and back. Then Sunday morning.... kaput battery! Strange...
But with the new battery installed, the car developed new problems. It basically began running terribly... to the point that I was afraid to drive it because I feared I may be destroying the engine if something was slowly breaking. After diagnosing it and searching forums and getting no clearcut answer, I limped it down to Advanced Auto yesterday and borrowed their OBDII scanner to find out (as I was getting DRENCHED) that cylinders #5, #6 AND #7 were ALL missfiring. Doh! But that was only new to Friday, because the car had not driven THAT poorly yet at all. So I bought a set of plugs and installed them tonight.
After replacing the passenger side, I went for a drive and the car felt FINE. In fact, it felt GREAT. I felt really happy, and finished swapping out the driver side. Let me just say that this Ford 4.6 is a BREEZE to change the plugs on compared the my old LT1s. With the LT1s, the plugs were all located under the exhaust pipes and a PAIN to get at. You had to put the car up, get under it and then FIGHT for hours to get the last three in the back areas. On the Crown Vic they are all accessible from the TOP of the engine right from the intake manifold and I swapped them all out in less than an hour and twenty minutes. It means little to you guys, but that is WORLDS cooler to me.
Anyway, after cleaning myself up I went for a final check-out run. It went okay-ish, until I got home and it stalled out and tossed a Check Engine light. While driving it still stuttered a bit and acceleration is weak and sputtery... but DRIVABLE. Ok, so I am kinda mad when it died out and then practically stalled out again as I parked it.... until 10 minutes later I realized that I never plugged the wires for the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor and the IAT (Intake Air Temp) sensor. Doh! Without those, NO WONDER it stalled. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't crap out on the highway since most engine computers switch over to open-loop operation after 5 minutes (and the drive was 14).
So I plug the wires back in and go for a 9-minute drive out to Carpenter and 68 and back. I feel a bit more confident in the car now that the wires are plugged in, but it is still feeling weak under acceleration. Didn't stall out or throw any engine lights, but it doesn't feel right yet. For now, I'm glad it can drive semi-safely. But I am really annoyed that I can't figure out what's wrong.
It could be.... (and Rob, feel free to express your thoughts on my comments here)
-MAF... the car ran more or less the same on both rides with and without the MAF hooked up, so the MAF itself may be going bad
-Transmission... I have had them either blow up all at once or have one gear get progressively worse. While neither of these quite fit the situation, it's possible nonetheless that there is a problem because while at a light I switched to neutral and revved the engine and it revved and ran fine.
-Manifold Crack or Leak... if the proper amounts of metered air are or are not reaching each cylinder correctly, it would account for the sputtering and lack of power under load.
-TPS, IAT, EGR... (Throttle Position Sensor, Intake Air Temp, Echaust Gas Recirculation) If any of these were crapping out, they may ALSO account for the lack of power and the stutter.
-Alternator... the battery died before, the new battery runs fine and stays at the same charge, but if the alternator were sort of on-again/off-again as it began to die it, too, might account for the stutter while driving and the lack of power as rpm increases.
So there's all sorts of "maybes" now, and nothing is certain. I AM glad I changed the plugs, because the ones in there were junked up and needed changing anyway. But I wish they had been the cause of the problems! I hope to find out more tomorrow when I bring it down to Advanced again in the evening. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and I'll try to post some info about the pageant from this weekend too. It was really a lot more fun than I thought it would be to judge the event, and I'll explain how I pushed the final scoring to get my top choice one of the two crowns. ;)
TGI Monday? LOL
posted by Tusc at 10/30/2006 12:38:00 AM
5 Comments:
That sucks that the Vic is acting up. Hmm, I'm wondering about both the MAF, since like you said, it ran the same with it unplugged and plugged in. I would definetly have them test the altenator, just cause of what happened with the battery. Did the check engine light stay on after you plugged both the sensors back in?
That is very nice about the spark plugs, I rememeber where they were on the LT1 :(
Hopefully this time Advanced will be able to say definetly what it is, and it won't be something expensive.
9:40 AM
Well, Advanced can only do so much. They are not mechanics, but they WILL let you use tools and scanners they have. So they can test the alternator, but not sure if they can check the MAF or other sensors. For that I may have to call Brian's friend Tom Moniello since he is both knowledgeable of Fords and engine tech in general.
At first I thought part of the issue with the new plugs might be that I had unplugged the battery twice while doing the plugs (Brett is not fond of the prospect of experiencing a full discharge from the coils/battery... having seen my OTHER friend Tom get crispy and pass out momentarily and lose feeling in his arm for an hour after grounding to a coil!)
If I wanted to test all the sensors, I would have to go through the whole engine with a voltmeter. While that's not a problem, the trick is learning the values I am supposed to be looking for with each sensor. I simply don't know that and would need to buy one of the BIG tech books to learn, unless someone on a forum somewhere can help.
11:03 AM
OMFG, girl. LEARN TO SPELL. And/or proof your posts and e-mails. It drives me nuts the way you "sound" when you write, dopey-doo.
Trans-Siberian? Saw them last year, and it WAS a good show. But I dropped about $400 on tickets and think I can go a year without doing THAT again.
It was an awesome show, you'll enjoy it with whomever you choose to go with.
1:25 PM
And Tori, just so you know, you are never getting another water from me unless you FINISH IT. Do you know how many water bottles you leave around this house that are less than half drank? Two in the den this weekend and two in my room.... plus the ones you left there before. If you open it, finish it before going to another one. Unlike at work, we do not have an endless supply of Pepsi Water products you lazy bump on a log! =P
Seriously though, you leave 'em everywhere.
3:04 PM
New thought - O2 sensor... if the O2 sensor(s) were going bad, the computer would then adjust the fuel mixture making it rich or lean. That in itself could then foul out the spark plugs, which would eventually lead to the missfire condition I experienced. It would also account for the lack of power, though I am not sure if it would have anything to do with the stuttery feeling.... we shall see. I may go buy a new O2 (or two if the car has two) and find out.
1:55 PM
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