96 escort schedualed maint. ?

I just purchased a 96 escort wagon auto with 63,000 miles it was a city inspectors car in Wichita, Ks. have not picked it up yet but do know the brake light on dash stays on and the engine idles a little rough, also wanted to know when I should replace the timing belt and water pump, I would rather do it before they go out and sit on the highway twidiling my thumbs. Also any other things I should consider to get years of use out of it, I only paid $1300 for it so I can afford to spend a little. PS. when I do pick it up its going directly on a 3 hour drive besides checking the oil and coolant should I consider looking at anything else ?

Reply to
Pd7704
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How about finding out what is wrong with the brakes? The car should get you to your destination. But will you be able to stop there? Or run into something on the way?

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

hey the timing belt is do about 85 to 90,000.if the water pump is leaking or the pully is lose replace it,for a 3 hour drive conseder trans servic,check your brake fulid.i hope you are happy with the car becuse thats all that matters.hope this helps

Reply to
casper27

Whoa! Do you also check if guns are loaded by putting them to your head and pulling the trigger?!

Check the brake situation out first. If the car is like my 98, the brake light is very conservative - it will come on once the fluid level gets even slightly below the minimum line. Fill up the reservoir and see if the light goes out. Drive around the block a few times, slowly, braking frequently - see if the level goes down. THEN go for a longer drive. Have your hand by the parking brake in case you can't stop the vehicle.

I had a leaky cylinder in one of the rear wheels, a very slow leak.

Rough idle - which I had for a long time, worse when the car was (a) warm, (b) in gear, and (c) running accessories like headlamps and a/c - was ultimately caused by a vacuum leak, but I also did the following things before finding the leak, all of which improved the situation:

- reseated outlet hose on air cleaner. This had come off.

- cleaned MAF sensor.

- replaced PCV

- put a shim around the grommet in the engine block where the PCV valve hose connects. This grommet was old, very stiff, and leaky.

Reply to
zwsdotcom

where and what is the MAF sensor?

Reply to
Pd7704

The Mass Air Flow sensor is inside the air intake. It is essentially a heated wire suspended in the airstream. Rate of flow is inferred from the resistance of the wire, which varies as the wire is cooled by varying airflow rate. Not all MAFs are constructed exactly the same way.

As it happens I took pictures while I was disassembling mine.

shows the air cleaner at the lower right corner, before disassembly. There is a band clamped around the middle; remove that band and you can separate the two halves. One half contains the air cleaner element (the part you replace). The other part contains the MAF sensor.

is a view down the throat of the MAF sensor. The sensor wire is inside the hole milled in the center of that aluminum piece (sorry the angle of the pic doesn't quite let you see it - it's very hard to photograph shiny polished metal bits in bright sunlight :).

I used carburetor cleaner on the sensor. Different people recommend different things. Here is a page that describes the process on a different car, with some good pictures:

Reply to
zwsdotcom

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