Lincoln towncar hickups when 60+ MPH

I have a lincoln town car -1997 - which hickups (kind of feels like the
gas drops off for a split second) intermitently. Its not continuous -
like a misfiring cylinder, its like, every 4-5 seconds travelling at 65
mph. I thought perhaps the plugs. So we replaced those. Still had
the problem.
Mechanic did a computer check and said the engine itself was operating
correctly. He thought perhaps the tran. fluid + filter might be bad.
So we changed that out today, including the fluid from the Torque
converter - we drained that too. But even after new fluid & filter,
I'm still having the problem. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jason Shohet

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have a lincoln town car -1997 - which hickups (kind of feels like the
> gas drops off for a split second) intermitently. Its not continuous -
> like a misfiring cylinder, its like, every 4-5 seconds travelling at 65
> mph. I thought perhaps the plugs. So we replaced those. Still had
> the problem.
> Mechanic did a computer check and said the engine itself was operating
> correctly. He thought perhaps the tran. fluid + filter might be bad.
> So we changed that out today, including the fluid from the Torque
> converter - we drained that too. But even after new fluid & filter,
> I'm still having the problem. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> Jason Shohet

Bad plug wire if you have the carbon wires. Change all of them. This is hard
to determine which one when it is intermittent. Been there done that.
Mechanics said plugs, nope. Mechanic said transmission solenoid, nope. Then
went to local gas station. They said wires, Yep. W W

>Bad plug wire if you have the carbon wires. Change all of them.

Couldn't agree more. Plug wires are very often overlooked. They
can corrode at the terminals and weaken the spark and make the thing
start missing at cruise, where the mixture leans out and gets harder to
ignite. I had to learn this the hard way in several vehicles years
ago...persistent missing in cruise that I could never nail down. And
this after my mechanics instructor told me that 90% of engine problems
would be electrical, yet we mess with carbs and so on endlessly.

Dan

> my mechanics instructor told me that 90% of engine problems
> would be electrical, yet we mess with carbs and so on endlessly.

Well, that may be more a statement about the extent to which the carbs
and so on have an (often uneasy) relationship with electrical elements
these days.

Felt a similar symptom in a '95 Chevy with a throttle-body-injected
small-block V8 during a recent road trip. It occurred after
substantial periods of a steady throttle opening. I got home still
wondering whether it was torque-converter lockup jumping in and out or
an electrical glitch or what. A couple days later it got bad enough
to stall me at an intersection briefly. By that time the computer had
stored a trouble code for the Manifold Absolute Pressure sensor, and
backprobing the connector confirmed that guess. Thirty dollars and a
pretty trivial bit of work later it was running fine.

Dunno if a '97 Lincoln even uses such a part, much less whether that's
the problem; the point is that a *lot* of things other than the basics
of mixture/spark/compression can cause these "driveability" issues.

I'd start with a visual inspection (no debating that plug wires have a
hard life down there and need to be replaced every several years, for
one thing), and then see what a code scanner had to say (that's an
On-Board Diagnostics II vehicle, right?).

Also, does it just happen "at 60" or in steady state driving at highway
speeds generally?
Other speeds? Only full warm or all the time or... you get the
idea.

Best of luck,
--Joe

"Warren Weber >>>bresnan.net>" <hiviewNO SPAM@> wrote in message
...
>
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >I have a lincoln town car -1997 - which hickups (kind of feels like the
> > gas drops off for a split second) intermitently. Its not continuous -
> > like a misfiring cylinder, its like, every 4-5 seconds travelling at 65
> > mph. I thought perhaps the plugs. So we replaced those. Still had
> > the problem.
> > Mechanic did a computer check and said the engine itself was operating
> > correctly. He thought perhaps the tran. fluid + filter might be bad.
> > So we changed that out today, including the fluid from the Torque
> > converter - we drained that too. But even after new fluid & filter,
> > I'm still having the problem. Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jason Shohet
>
> Bad plug wire if you have the carbon wires. Change all of them. This is
hard
> to determine which one when it is intermittent. Been there done that.
> Mechanics said plugs, nope. Mechanic said transmission solenoid, nope.
Then
> went to local gas station. They said wires, Yep. W W
>
>
...all so correct. So, please be sure to buy GOOD wires, not the
el-cheapo ones from a "Western-Auto-type" store. After all, the originals
plus this set will probably be all you'll ever need. Cheap maintenance on
driveability, in my opinion. s

Thanks to all of you -- Yes Joe, it happens at 65 mph, and more
noticeable the faster I go, whether on cruise or not. Below 60, its
kind of hard to detect. My wife probably would never even notice the
thing but it drives me up the wall
Maybe I'll try replacing the wires w/ those from Pep Boys...

> wrote in message
ps.com...
> Thanks to all of you -- Yes Joe, it happens at 65 mph, and more
> noticeable the faster I go, whether on cruise or not. Below 60, its
> kind of hard to detect. My wife probably would never even notice the
> thing but it drives me up the wall
> Maybe I'll try replacing the wires w/ those from Pep Boys...
>
I hope P-Boys has some GOOD wires. I've seen several instances where
Auto Zone wires had to be returned & replaced with known good ones to get
the problem solved. s

"sdlomi2" > wrote in message
...
> I hope P-Boys has some GOOD wires. I've seen several instances where
> Auto Zone wires had to be returned & replaced with known good ones to get
> the problem solved. s

Autozone sources some good parts nowadays, but they also source some cheap
crap.
They have Bosch wiresets, which I have used successfully.