Took The Stang to the Shop Today

[Jbauer]

Ouch. Bet he learned from that

 

[Mustang5L5]

A rotten egg smell? That's sulfer and usually a sign of a bad converter sometimes

 

[chuck943]

A rotten egg smell? That's sulfer and usually a sign of a bad converter sometimes

Well not really. Sulfur actually forms during the low temp cycle inside the convertor and combimes with HC to be burned off in the high temp cycle in the convertor. When it gets bad enough for you to start smelling it this is usually a sign of excessive HC's getting to the convertor most likely from a lean miss fire. This will eventually harm the cat because if it is a lean miss fire there will be more oxygen present and when it is burnt off in the cat the temps will start climbing and may eventually get hot enough to cause the substrates to melt and clog the cat.
At least that is the way I understand it.

 

[blackfang]

3) a 500 dollar fuel injection cleaner? Man, whats this world coming to. Go to autozone, buy some "sea foam" shove that isht in the brake booster and watch the smoke show..voila..cost you 5 bucks. Jiffy lube and other hack shops do the "Fuel injection" cleaning for about 69.99 if you have absolutley no technical knowledge.

Nothing states that fuel injection cleaning is $500. Replacing spark plugs and coil packs are $510. Fuel injection cleaning on the invoice shows $80.

 

[steve_stang2003]

you know, i believe it's impossible to hydrolock the engine or do any sort of engine damage from seafoam. I'm just not aware of any way you can get this stuff into the engine so fast it hydrolocks. You can pour it straight into the brake booster, upside down with an air compressor flange welded to the back of the bottle and i still doubt you could flow enough to hydrolock. I feel it's just a myth.

Seafoam in the gas tank..meh, won't hurt anything, probably wont help anything either. Techron is better for that. As far as in the oil, i did that to my jetta and it was never the same. I drove around with it in the crank case for a bout a week and i started getting blue smoke out the tail pipe. I think its best to just leave it in the oil for 5 or 10 minutes and drain it if going that route. Seafoam, IMO is only good as a direct fuel injection cleaner..like through a vaccum line or machine.

The car will stall long before it hydrolocks....

Any of the Top Engine cleaners, like GM, Seafoam, etc are to be used as a COMPLETE LAST RESORT....
And yes, I know many people will disagree, but think about it for a minute.
Your motor was designed to tolerate certain fluids, in certain concentrations.
Seafoam, GM Tope Engine Cleaner, Marvel Mystery Oil etc are typically not on the list...
However, if you have a high mileage or a poorly maintained car that is running bad and you have exhausted all the options then give it a try.
GM top Engine Cleaner made my 92 Caprice run great after I tried everything to get rid of poor power and pinging.
Of course the car had 300,000 miles on it.
It now has almost 500,000 miles on it and runs as good as it ever did.
All original....
Bottom line is Seafoam and other stuff like it should be used as last resort only.
When I read about people using that stuff every 20k miles I cringe....
Techron is great stuff to keep your fuel system clean BTW.

 

[steve_stang2003]

what the hell is a 25% misfire

test the resistance of the coils and slap some new plugs in that bich. If you don't have an ohm meter, wait till night time and spray some water over the coils and look for sparks.
Then get some CRC MAF cleaner and call it a day

I'm not aware of any ford re flash of the ECM that fixes a misfire, or a 'rotten egg' smelling car. I don't know about ford, but at the VW dealer, Reflashes are free of charge, and are preformed without the customers consent.

Not to hijack the thread, but what's the cheapest way to get a key made for a 2003 Jetta. I don't need the FOB just a key that will start/open the car and I only have one working key/fob

I have 2 Jetta's BTW, great cars but $$$$$ to fix and the water pump is a poor design as is the power window/door lock system.


PM me.

TIA

 

[Brute03]

A rotten egg smell? That's sulfer and usually a sign of a bad converter sometimes

not necessarily, you can get that smell when the cats are bombarded with fuel - in other words, during a misfire

 

[kramer03gt]

Hey guys, just wanted to give an update. Well i cleaned the MAF and it really didnt seem to do to much, it still smells and for some reason it makes this gurgle sound, i have noticed it before and really never thought anything of it, come to find out i had some work done on the car a while back and they seafomed it, they put in in the wrong tube and it ran threw the otherside of the intake, IE fluid came out the fender side of the intake and drentched the filter and etc. I am going to order plugs and MSD coil overs next and see if that changes anything, i am also going to go ahead and order a new air filter as well. I will let you know the outcome as things get replaced.

 

[Notchbck93]

A soaked filter will cause plenty of havoc!

 

[kramer03gt]

I guess that is what i figured with the filter.. what kinda of havoc can it cause, being its been like that for a while i guess, i am ordering a new K&N, plugs, and MSD COP next week, so I am hoping that will fix the problem.

 

[kramer03gt]

Is there anything I can do to the filter?? it is a green filter if that makes an difference, its reusable, is there a good way to clean it?? or are those chemicals to soaked in now to really matter and i should just get a new one?

 

[MaxedGT]

from one auto tech to another........behave. there is no "follow my steps to success" when it comes to fixing a vehicle. no two cars with the same problem are always fixed the same. might be same symptoms, but different solutions to it. anyone that knows from experience knows that following a scanner religiously is dumb. scanners are scan TOOLS. tools that help the tech fix the problem. it is up to the tech to figure out what the real problem is by checking all affecting sensors/mechanical equipment.
hell it'd be a beautiful day when i can hook up our solus scanner and it told me exactly how to fix a car, never mind the codes that were "lied to" but getting down to the source. would make my job a hell of a lot easier and more profitable. but until that happens, were still going to keep diagnosing automobile problems and only with experience will we become faster and more knowledgeable to help the customers spend less.
to the original poster, if you would like to save some money, find out what the real problem is and fix that. or if you want to start following somebodys elses list, you just might get lucky in the first couple of parts you throw on that bady boy. whatever you decide to do. good luck.



little example, little brothers fox was throwing codes 41 and 91. bank 1 and 2 running lean. previous owners replaced both o2s, egr, and maybe even the maf (looks newish) in hopes of fixing it. it didnt. they did it because thats what the codes "suggested" to replace to fix the problem. then we bought the car and after much reading and diagnosing i found the problem. a fubile link that supplied power to both o2s was blown, fixed that and the car runs great now. all those other parts that the previous owner spent wasnt necessary. money that could of stayed in his pocket.

I'm a tech at dealer and I agree with jbauer. Working on the same vehicles all the time you often know what's wrong with a particular car before even getting the keys. Sometimes I can guess what kind of car it is from the complaint.
And as a tech, you have to thorough with the repairs. Let's say you had them do everything but the cop's because he didn't recommend them, and it ran better but not 100%. Wouldn't you be pissed that you had to go back and spend even more more.

 

[MaxedGT]

I should add, I'm not a Ford tech.

 

[MaxedGT]

Is there anything I can do to the filter?? it is a green filter if that makes an difference, its reusable, is there a good way to clean it?? or are those chemicals to soaked in now to really matter and i should just get a new one?

If it's a reusable filter you can get a k&n service kit and clean it and reoil it.
sounds like it's got way too much oil on it and that'll restrict the air flow and contaminate the maf sensor. so you'll have to clean the maf sensor too. You might have to replace the maf sensor.
If you can't clean the filter, then replace it. You'll still need the k&n cleaning kit eventually anyway.
The sulpher smell will be caused by running too rich. If it's been running too rich for too long the cats can be damaged, and the rotten egg smell won't go away or even worse the cats will be partially plugged causing a loss of power. Missfires will also cause the same symptoms with cats and odours, because unburned fuel will be going through the cats and overheating them.
Using Seafoam by drawing it in a vacuum line, will decarbonise the combustion chambers and clean the intake, but does nothing to clean the injectors as some have suggested. It should be drawn in slowly. Liquids do not compress and if done quickly will bend rods and cranks.

 

[MaxedGT]

and don't forget to replace your fuel filter.

 

[MaxedGT]

and pcv valve.
I'm working on my post count.

 

[Hardtop68]

One question Kramer03GT... all this happened all of a sudden? all these parts failed within a narrow time-frame?

I would only fix one thing first... I would scan the car again and check that the MAF is out of range (not giving a reliable signal to the PCM)... I would clean it... if this doesn't work, replace MAF only...

The likelihood of so many things failing together are nil... 3 coils, MAF, plugs, dirt fuel system, PCM reflash...

 

[kramer03gt]

Hardtop68

Yeah i noticed the missfire under acceleration first, and my thought was the MAF was to small for all the air that was getting sucked in, so i really did not think anything of it, mostly thinking about getting a bigger MAF, Then a couple of months later i noticed the smell, i figured after the seafoam incident running out the air filter that maybe it was still a little wet and everything was going to clear up after it dried. But then it started making a gurgling sound.

But these are the steps that have been taken, i have cleaned the maf but that did not help at all. So as of tonight i have ordered a set of accel COP and a new set of NGK tr55 spark plugs, I do have a question on the plugs are these ones that need to be gapped? or can i just put them in as is?? I also plan on removing the air filter and cleaning it, its just filter made by green it did not come with any cleaning solutions? any recomendations on the best way to clean? I will keep everyone updated. Hopefully this will fix the problem.

 

[kramer03gt]

Well just an update, I finally received a set of Accel COP after being on back order, I did clean out the filter, it was black, so it seemed to have stoped the mysterious gurgle sound the car had, however it still smells and missing at WOT, so Saturday the plugs and COP's will get replaced and will see what the outcome is. Hopefully should have another update tues or wednesday.

 

[Dragstr05]

One question Kramer03GT... all this happened all of a sudden? all these parts failed within a narrow time-frame?

I would only fix one thing first... I would scan the car again and check that the MAF is out of range (not giving a reliable signal to the PCM)... I would clean it... if this doesn't work, replace MAF only...

The likelihood of so many things failing together are nil... 3 coils, MAF, plugs, dirt fuel system, PCM reflash...

+1

I'm a tech as well (yes, another one in this thread it seems). They obviously do not know what they are doing. They were just going to throw parts at the car, and figured after all that it would be fixed and now you are following in their footsteps.

If you havent changed the plugs, you should have done that anyway. They are rated for 100k, wont hurt anything to do them a little early. Always a good idea to keep up on maint. items anyway.