2000 Contour - Last plea before taking to dealer

(This is my third posting - start with the last one below and read up if you
want the history.)

Swapping ignition coils between the two cars didn't solve the problem. Nor
did replacing the fuel filter. The air filter was replaced not too long ago
and is very clean. I also added some Heet (water remover) and Techron fuel
system cleaner to the gas tank. Our daughter drove the car on a 60-mile
trip with no problems, but on the way home, coming up a rather steep climb,
the car started missing again. So it still misses intermittently.

A friend suggested that it could be a bad fuel injector and told me to
listen to them to see if one sounds different from the others. The problem
is that I can't get to them without removing lots of stuff (upper air intake
included). Of course, maybe I'm missing something - I'm not a _real_
mechanic, just a tinkerer.

So, any last suggestions before I take it to the local Ford dealer?

Craig

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the below, and got a couple of suggestions.
I put the original spark plug back in cylinder 1, checked under the hood in
the dark, disconnected the battery cable so the computer would re-learn the
car, etc. but the miss is still there. It is intermittent, though, and in
my opinion is spark related rather than fuel related. The car winds out to
6000+ rpm and seems to run better at higher rpms.

Tonight I pulled the ignition coil modules from _both_ our 2000 Contours,
and found black soot in the connection for cylinder #1 in both cars. In
fact it was much worse in the SVT (the one not having the problem). Since
these coils are identical, I am thinking of just swapping them and seeing
what happens. I'll be sure to put a good coating of dielectric grease on
all the connectors.

Any comments or suggestions? Where does the soot come from?

Craig

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Mid-December 2004)

A little puzzled by this one. A miss problem that I thought I had fixed
came back.

Last summer our 2000 Contour Sport V6 (2.5L, 5-speed, 60K miles) developed
a miss with an intermittent Check Engine Light. I took it to the local
AutoZone and had the codes read, and it was a misfire in cylinder 1.

Changing the spark plug did not solve the problem. The plug I removed was
clean, too. Since we have _two_ 2000 Contours (the other is an SVT), I
removed the #1 plug wire from the SVT, put it on the Sport, and no more
miss. So I bought a set of wires for the Sport, and the car ran better than
ever.

Then, this past week, my wife reported that the car "shuddered" some at
idle, and rpms dropped below normal. A couple of days later, she said the
CEL came on a few times and the car seemed to be missing again. So I drove
it to work. Sure enough, the miss is back, worse than before. Driving it
home from work, the CEL was flashing, which I understand to mean that excess
gasoline is in the exhaust, which could damage the catalytic converter.

Took it back to AZ -- misfire in cyclinder 1. It hasn't been driven since.

So what do you think? My first thought is to swap the coil pack from the
SVT to this car, and see if that is the problem. I doubt that the new wire
or plug would be the cause - too much of a coincidence. It could also be a
fuel injector problem.

Any suggestions from your experience would be appreciated. I'd rather not
take it to the local dealership - their service garage reputation is not so
good, and I'm willing to spend a little time.

Craig
[to reply directly, change the VERB to a NUMERAL]

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:44:59 GMT, "Craig Williams"
> wrote:

>(This is my third posting - start with the last one below and read up if you
>want the history.)

You say you *think* this is spark related rather than fuel related.
Well if that's the case, and in your own words it still misses
intermittently, I would expect a MIL DTC Pending. Misfire cylinder 1,
PENDING, for activation of Malfunction Indicator Light.

You can/could plug in an OBD scanner and find out about this right
away, but I presume you don't have access to one. Therein lies the
problem at the moment.

Other than that, you would have to look at your short term and long
term fuel/air trims to see if it is fuel related.

Barring all of the above I just mentioned, it is possible that 1 or
more fuel injectors is -not- providing enough fuel to a particular
cylinder under high engine load ( going up the steep hill ). How do
you find out about that. Cylinder 1 injector _could_ be firing
alright, but not allowing -enough- fuel into the cylinder, and that is
your *miss.*

Just a wild-assed-guess, you can either get some diagnostic equipment,
or listen, like your friend said to cyl 1 FI vs cyl 2 FI etc etc and
see which one is the *odd sounding one* with a cheap engine
stethascope, and/or, you can look at the signal to the injector on a
scope. I would say, do say, the signal can be FINE but if the jet is
clogged to the point it can only deliver a certain amount of fuel, an
insufficient amount of fuel, under hi engine load, you're not going to
find out about that by looking at a scope trace. The input might be
fine, the fuel system pressure might be fine, the air intake might be
fine, the nozzle might be restricted.

There ya go. Now whaddaya do. How do you find out if the nozzle is
restricted. Well you are running Techron right at the moment, so do
it AGAIN. Fuel System Cleaner is the right thing to use.

Otoh, you could have a _damaged_ fuel injector. I mean, it is just
FUBAR. So that is where you get into using the sound to diagnose the
one that sounds *funny.*

HTH

Lg



>
>Swapping ignition coils between the two cars didn't solve the problem. Nor
>did replacing the fuel filter. The air filter was replaced not too long ago
>and is very clean. I also added some Heet (water remover) and Techron fuel
>system cleaner to the gas tank. Our daughter drove the car on a 60-mile
>trip with no problems, but on the way home, coming up a rather steep climb,
>the car started missing again. So it still misses intermittently.
>
>A friend suggested that it could be a bad fuel injector and told me to
>listen to them to see if one sounds different from the others. The problem
>is that I can't get to them without removing lots of stuff (upper air intake
>included). Of course, maybe I'm missing something - I'm not a _real_
>mechanic, just a tinkerer.
>
>So, any last suggestions before I take it to the local Ford dealer?
>
>Craig
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>A couple of weeks ago, I posted the below, and got a couple of suggestions.
>I put the original spark plug back in cylinder 1, checked under the hood in
>the dark, disconnected the battery cable so the computer would re-learn the
>car, etc. but the miss is still there. It is intermittent, though, and in
>my opinion is spark related rather than fuel related. The car winds out to
>6000+ rpm and seems to run better at higher rpms.
>
>Tonight I pulled the ignition coil modules from _both_ our 2000 Contours,
>and found black soot in the connection for cylinder #1 in both cars. In
>fact it was much worse in the SVT (the one not having the problem). Since
>these coils are identical, I am thinking of just swapping them and seeing
>what happens. I'll be sure to put a good coating of dielectric grease on
>all the connectors.
>
>Any comments or suggestions? Where does the soot come from?
>
>Craig
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>(Mid-December 2004)
>
>A little puzzled by this one. A miss problem that I thought I had fixed
>came back.
>
>Last summer our 2000 Contour Sport V6 (2.5L, 5-speed, 60K miles) developed
>a miss with an intermittent Check Engine Light. I took it to the local
>AutoZone and had the codes read, and it was a misfire in cylinder 1.
>
>Changing the spark plug did not solve the problem. The plug I removed was
>clean, too. Since we have _two_ 2000 Contours (the other is an SVT), I
>removed the #1 plug wire from the SVT, put it on the Sport, and no more
>miss. So I bought a set of wires for the Sport, and the car ran better than
>ever.
>
>Then, this past week, my wife reported that the car "shuddered" some at
>idle, and rpms dropped below normal. A couple of days later, she said the
>CEL came on a few times and the car seemed to be missing again. So I drove
>it to work. Sure enough, the miss is back, worse than before. Driving it
>home from work, the CEL was flashing, which I understand to mean that excess
>gasoline is in the exhaust, which could damage the catalytic converter.
>
>Took it back to AZ -- misfire in cyclinder 1. It hasn't been driven since.
>
>So what do you think? My first thought is to swap the coil pack from the
>SVT to this car, and see if that is the problem. I doubt that the new wire
>or plug would be the cause - too much of a coincidence. It could also be a
>fuel injector problem.
>
>Any suggestions from your experience would be appreciated. I'd rather not
>take it to the local dealership - their service garage reputation is not so
>good, and I'm willing to spend a little time.
>
>Craig
>[to reply directly, change the VERB to a NUMERAL]
>