Car is running like crap... symptoms inside

Jekyl

New Member
Mar 31, 2005
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Calgary AB
For the past 4 days my car hasnt been running well. Im not a mechanic but it feels like its not firing in all cylinders or sumthing...ok here are the symptoms..

Start car... ROUGH Idle at about 800 rpm or so... i can hear the exhaust in distinct intervals... as if only 6 cylenders are firing becuase the is a pause in exhaust notes.. car shakes rough at idle... I can also hear what I can only describe as a knocking comming from engine bay.

Accelerating.... NO POWER... the car putters.. but wait... suddenly and randomly the car runs fine... no puttering and feels like a have power again but still not up to normal. Its stupid becuase it goes from ****ty then to good for a bit then ****ty again. It gets better sumtimes if i rev high for a sec or sumtimes after i complete a shift.. But 85 percent of the time it seems to putter and doesnt sound healthy at all.

My coolant and oil levels and topped up and i threw in fuel injector cleaner and that isnt working.

It wierd becuase it comes and goes so suddenly as if its a loose plug wire that keeps firing and not...

I dont even know if this is an ignition system problem.

Sorry for long post but what do i do????
 
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Did you pull your plugs? If you cant remember the last time they were pulled I would replace them. Also I see you replaced your cap/rotor. I am assuming you also replaced your ignition wires? also if you did the cap/rotor very recently - are you sure you placed the wires in the correct firing order? Id start there before you get too worried. Hopefully its as easy as a small tune up/correction . While your in there a new PCV would not hurt either. Take it out and shake it - if it doesnt make a noise- replace it.
Good Luck :flag:
 
Yeah I have ford racing plug wires. These were replaced well before these symptoms started to happen and im 100 percent sure they are in the right firing order... Im gonna replace my spark plugs and pcv. and hopefully that does it... and an oil change couldnt hurt.
 
When was the last time you changed your fuel filter? If the answer is never, start with the filter, it is cheap and easy. How old is your fuel pump too? Either could cause intermittant performance loss. Check your fuel pressure, to see if your pump is working propperly.
 
Typically this sort of problem is ignition. It could be the fuel filter, but if that screws it up at idle, it should screw it up 100% all the time.
I had this problem once where it wasn't ignition. A ground wire for one of the injectors had been rubbing on something and rubbed the insulation of the wire. The injectors actually get 12v all the time, and the computer gives it ground on and off, to fire the injector.
Well that wire when vibrated correctly would ground out, and the injector it matched would then just stay wide open.
The cylinder wouldn't fire short of very high rpms, and actually smoked white out of the tailpipe.
 
If it sounds like it's pinging like you said it might be bad gas also. Try replacing the fuel filter. Check engine light on? Take it to Autozone and they'll give you a free diagnosis. I went through something similar, but it was fine at idle and fine when the car was cold, but it would misfire when it was warmed up and was worse going up hill. Turned out to be a bad coil pack.
 
I would go through and do what all the other guys have suggested, clean MAF, clean TB if you can (some have a coating that will come off if you use cleaner on it), clean the IAC, check the PCV system, check plug wires and such and plugs, change out the fuel filter if you haven't.

Also check out the some other things, check your fuel pressure. I once had a fuel pump going south on me and it did some of the things your car is doing.

Check for vaccuum leaks. I spent the better part of two days chasing an erratic and rough idle only to find it was a vacuum leak at the TB to EGR spacer. Get a can of starting fluid, contact cleaner or brake cleaner and spray it around all of the gasket and hose connection on the intake. If you hear the engine rev up then you have a vacuum leak there.

Hope this helps cause I know how frustrating it can be.
 
RYC CUKR said:
I would go through and do what all the other guys have suggested, clean MAF, clean TB if you can (some have a coating that will come off if you use cleaner on it), clean the IAC, check the PCV system, check plug wires and such and plugs, change out the fuel filter if you haven't.

Also check out the some other things, check your fuel pressure. I once had a fuel pump going south on me and it did some of the things your car is doing.

Check for vaccuum leaks. I spent the better part of two days chasing an erratic and rough idle only to find it was a vacuum leak at the TB to EGR spacer. Get a can of starting fluid, contact cleaner or brake cleaner and spray it around all of the gasket and hose connection on the intake. If you hear the engine rev up then you have a vacuum leak there.

Hope this helps cause I know how frustrating it can be.

^------I Like that

Vac leaks do cause rough idle- but usually not an intermitent rough idle
Best thing you could tell us is the last mod or repair you did before this started happening. Could very well give it right away do to related components/common problems.
Give her a tune up and report back
 
BLOWN 5.0 FOX said:
^------I Like that

Vac leaks do cause rough idle- but usually not an intermitent rough idle
Best thing you could tell us is the last mod or repair you did before this started happening. Could very well give it right away do to related components/common problems.
Give her a tune up and report back

Mine has been fixed. It ended up being a vacuum leak at the TB/EGR spacer. The fact that it was intermittant is what made me think at first it wasn't a vacuum leak. I put a vacuum gauge on it and it was only pulling like 12" at idle. Sprayed around with some starting fluid found the leak, fixed it and idles like a champ now. Pulls right at 16" of vacuum at idle now. Runs better than it has in quite a while.

The first thing I did was a full tune up since it had been a while since my last one.
 
If none of these other suggestions help, make sure your distributor hold down bolt hasn't come loose. I had a similar problem on a 351 one time and that what is was, the timing was oscillating back and forth. Good luck.
 
Just finishing my rebuild for same "problems". but my car had multiple little things causing same senario(sp). 1:small leak in exause manifold gasket(which caused a air leak sound/sputtering). 2: I just swiched to heavier weight oil which must have not gotten allong with my rear lower intake gasket and it leaked, we checked that with a smoking machine my friend has at his shop, very helpful. 3:Ohmed out my year and a half old msd wires and one was bad so just because they may be fairly new DON"T overlook them. GOOD LUCK!!