[Shotimes] Intermittent Misfire on '94 w/ATX (long)

J.B. Hebert jhebert@wrxtra.com
Tue, 16 Mar 2004 10:20:52 -0500


The camshaft sensor was replaced about a year ago.  It failed completely 
and left the car in a no-start condition.

J.B.

At 09:56 AM 3/16/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>The stumbling you mentioned can be the camshaft position sensor.
>For me, that threw a code when the stumbling happened and I got the
>CEL to come on momentarily.  I noticed that the problem was
>temperature sensitive.
>--
>Cheers,
>Carl Prochilo
>1992 Ultra Red Crimson
>
>J.B. Hebert said:
> > Ah, totally forgot to mention that.  Yes, I did both tests when the
> > problem
> > first started, but I have not done them since the most recent
> > increase in
> > severity.  When I ran the tests, everything came back normal.  I'll
> > try
> > them again tonight if I can get the car running long enough to warm
> > up.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > J.B. Hebert
> >
> > At 09:29 AM 3/16/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> >>Just curiious.  In any of that long list of work did you do a KOEO
> >>or KOER test?
> >>--
> >>Cheers,
> >>Carl Prochilo
> >>1992 Ultra Red Crimson
> >>
> >>J.B. Hebert said:
> >> > Hello:
> >> >
> >> > I've been working on a problem with my '94 SHO 3.2 ATX.  It's
> >> > driving me
> >> > nuts, so I'm hoping that someone here can point me in the right
> >> > direction.  It started a few months ago with a surging/misfire
> >> at
> >> > light
> >> > throttle input.  I thought I might have gotten some bad gas, so
> >> I
> >> > ran a few
> >> > containers of Techron through and the problem seemed to go away.
> >> > Then a
> >> > week or two later it came back again.  It felt like one or two
> >> > cylinders
> >> > were not firing properly.  Following standard troubleshooting
> >> for
> >> > these
> >> > cars, I first checked the spark plug wells.  Sure enough, 2 or 3
> >> > were
> >> > nearly full of oil, so I replaced all the valve cover seals and
> >> > cleaned out
> >> > the spark plug wells thoroughly.  After reassembling the car,
> >> the
> >> > problem
> >> > once again seemed to be resolved.  However, after a few hours of
> >> > driving it
> >> > returned.  At this point I had my mechanic run a few tests, and
> >> he
> >> > found
> >> > that one of the cylinders was running lean.  I decided to have
> >> the
> >> > injectors rebuilt in case I had one intermittently sticking.  At
> >> the
> >> > same
> >> > time I replaced the coil, in case I had one that was failing, as
> >> > well as
> >> > the air and fuel filters.  I put the new injectors in, and once
> >> > again
> >> > everything was fine for a while.  Then the problem returned.  At
> >> > this
> >> > point, I thought it might be a spark issue.  Even though the
> >> > previous owner
> >> > had recently had the spark plugs and wires replaced, they did
> >> not
> >> > use
> >> > quality wires, so I replaced the spark plugs with the
> >> appropriate
> >> > Motorcraft platinums and put a set of Taylor spiral core wires
> >> in.
> >> > After
> >> > doing this, the car ran great for about 15 minutes.  I took it
> >> out
> >> > on the
> >> > highway and got it warmed up, then did a couple hard
> >> acceleration
> >> > runs.  It
> >> > was running out smoothly and with good power.  However, after
> >> the
> >> > second or
> >> > third run, I noticed that the car wouldn't rev over about 3800
> >> RPM.
> >> > It was
> >> > like it was hitting a rev limiter or something when it tried to
> >> open
> >> > the
> >> > secondary runners.  Suddenly, I completely lost power and the
> >> tach
> >> > dropped
> >> > to around 300RPM, even though the engine was still turning much
> >> > faster than
> >> > that.  I managed to get to the next off ramp and at this point
> >> the
> >> > car was
> >> > running on MAYBE two cylinders.  It would move, but the exhaust
> >> note
> >> > was
> >> > very bad and the transmission was having trouble shifting.  The
> >> tach
> >> > was
> >> > way off; it would read around 400 RPM even after a shift.
> >> Around
> >> > this time
> >> > the cabin started to fill with nasty, burnt plastic smoke.  I
> >> pulled
> >> > off to
> >> > the side of the road and shut down.  I popped the hood and could
> >> not
> >> > find
> >> > the source of the smoke.  It soon disapated so I started the
> >> car,
> >> > and it
> >> > ran much better.  However, while limping home it got worse again
> >> and
> >> > the
> >> > smoke returned.  I made it home and shut the motor off, coasting
> >> > down the
> >> > driveway.  Once again I was unable to find the source of the
> >> smoke.
> >> > One
> >> > last thing to note:  at no time during any of this has the check
> >> > engine
> >> > light come on.
> >> >
> >> > This car is driving me nuts, and making me long for my '89 MTX.
> >> > Does
> >> > anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks in advance.
> >> >
> >> > J.B. Hebert
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> > Shotimes@autox.team.net
> >> > http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shotimes
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