Author Topic: Should I just push this pos in the river  (Read 5136 times)

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Offline nocooler

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Should I just push this pos in the river
« on: September 06 2017, 09:15:15 AM »
So I've been driving a 03 escape for the last couple years. It's technically my parents but they were nice enough to let me suffer with it. It's got 175k on it, 3.0 duratec - auto - 4wd. It's a good size for the family at the moment and I don't mind driving a beater, but now that it's getting cooler and damp out it runs like shit in open loop. Once it warms up, it's good. It has a misfire code for a cylinder. I've done coils, plugs, valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets and tested all the coil wires and injector wires back to the pcm. It's definitely not hitting on more than 3-4 cylinders in open loop and doesn't have the power to hardly move unless you keep the revs up. You can feel the cylinders come online when driving, it goes from 50hp to 200hp. Until it's running right you have it baby it, to much pedal and it stumbles and wot rev. Put it in neutral and rev it and it'll clean up a little, if it's really bad a neutral drop will get it going.

Of course my dad bought this thing like this and gave up on it. Someone gutted the cats all 3 of them, and disconnected the egr, before he got it. He did dump about everything fix it on a bottle shit he could in it, engine restore, injector cleaner, Lucas, etc.

I'm thinking it's electrical since it doesn't run well when it's damp/cold. With the scanner hooked up everything seems to be reading normal. The o2 cycle, coolant temp, iat, maf, etc seem to be functioning as intended. It also takes forever to warm up in the winter, probably from not hitting on all cylinders.

My thoughts are:
Bad injector(s)
The emissions crap being deleted is freaking the pcm out
Valve seals allowing excessive oil into cylinders that doesn't burn off until it's warm
Or is just a complete pos

It's just one of those issues that I could drop a pile of cash in it and not make any progress. The wife doesn't really want me to waste my time on it, and I'm thinking she might be right. It's got some pretty good rust starting and leaks/burns oil. I change the oil about ever 1200 miles as it gets fuel contamination from not running right. But it drives great, rides good, and the a/c blows cold.

Of course the back cylinders are the ones with issues - so the upper intake has to come off to check anything and it's a pain in the ass.

Any ideas? Maybe it needs some hammer therapy?
I'm thinking it's time to replace it, as it sputtered randomly this morning on a left hand turn, if the road would have been busy it could have been bad.


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Offline Pyro6

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #1 on: September 06 2017, 09:18:51 AM »
What's the book value? knowing that would be step one.

Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #2 on: September 06 2017, 09:38:36 AM »
Nada says 1200 or so tops, it's really not worth putting much money in.
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Offline Scoobum

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #3 on: September 06 2017, 09:43:43 AM »
Jeremy, it's rusting out...ditch it. Don't put good money after bad. I dumped that Impala cuz it would shut off for no reason...and start again when it wanted to. I threw everything electrical at it I could. If I had done my homework before buying it I would have found a gazillion threads about those LT1's in the Impalas shutting off for no reason...and no one really had a solution. Maybe join a forum and do a search...maybe it's common what's going on with yours.
Hard work pays off, dreams come true. Bad times don't last, but BAD GUYS do!

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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #4 on: September 06 2017, 11:04:51 AM »
I've looked Brad - the official ford diagnostic guide says: plug, coil, then pcm. The internet is littered with posts of people spending thousands trying to fix misfire issues.

I think it's time to start looking for something different.
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #5 on: September 06 2017, 11:06:39 AM »
Oh and since it's a ferd the pcm has to be programmed to the vin, or you need the lock and key set out of the donor.
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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #6 on: September 06 2017, 11:32:12 AM »
Get what you can get for it...and move on.
Hard work pays off, dreams come true. Bad times don't last, but BAD GUYS do!

RIP Scott Hall AKA Razor Ramon

Offline 85and87turbofun

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #7 on: September 07 2017, 11:38:15 AM »
Just an idea.
check the resistance of the injectors.
Check the engine temp sensor.
I had a Buick with one bad injector. Ran rough when cold better when warm but still
wasn't normal. I've heard injectors can be bad cold but ok warm and visa versa.
I've also heard an open temp sensor will cause running rich until the ox sensor warms
and tells the computer it's too rich.
how do the spark plugs look?
Mine were black except the one with the bad injector.

Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #8 on: September 07 2017, 06:10:59 PM »
That's a good idea - if I get some time tomorrow I'll take a look. Thanks
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #9 on: September 08 2017, 12:19:08 PM »
I took the time to check the resistance on the injectors. 5 of them were 14.5 and one was 23.7. The plug in that cylinder definitely looked different.
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #10 on: September 08 2017, 02:17:53 PM »
I ordered a re manufactured set of injectors $68 shipped. Maybe I can get another winter out of this thing.
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #11 on: September 14 2017, 06:07:18 PM »
Injectors installed- runs much better. I'll have to see how it does when it's damp and cold.
Took 45 minutes, including me have to do it for twice as I nicked a seal putting the rail back on.
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #12 on: September 25 2017, 06:25:22 PM »
So I was reading about coils and e85 last night and a lightbulb went off...
This morning I re-gapped the plugs from the factory .060 to .025. Then I call cleared the codes. I've put 15 or so miles on it, no codes, no misfire, and it's never ran better. The weather is supposed to cool of later this week - hopefully its fixed.
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Offline nocooler

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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #13 on: September 27 2017, 04:57:05 PM »
It still popped and missed this morning albeit not nearly as bad as before. It threw a code, so I'll scan it tomorrow. Maybe I'll log it and see if anything new stands out.
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Re: Should I just push this pos in the river
« Reply #14 on: September 27 2017, 07:04:06 PM »
It still popped and missed this morning albeit not nearly as bad as before. It threw a code, so I'll scan it tomorrow. Maybe I'll log it and see if anything new stands out.

Got more patience than I have...
Hard work pays off, dreams come true. Bad times don't last, but BAD GUYS do!

RIP Scott Hall AKA Razor Ramon

 

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