All,
I was going to originally post this in alt.autos.ford.escort but when I saw the amount of SPAM and nearly zero activity... I thought I'd pose my question(s) here. Hopefully someone here can shed some light on my problem(s).
First off, my subject line pretty much describes my problem. From a standstill and if having to accelerate briskly... my '97 Escort Wagon is lacking severe power from 0-35MPH. Once I hit 40MPH the car runs like a champ with zero hesitation.
Shortly after this symptom developed... a P0303 code fired which AutoZone told me was a misfire on cylinder #3. I later brought the vehicle over to a friendly mechanic who hooked his $3K Snap-On diagnostic tool to the ODB-II connector and ran a suite of tests and checked every sensor. Every sensor reported within spec.
He then tried the old trick of removing each plug wire individually. Each removed wire caused the engine to run like crap. He removed the vacuum hose from the Fuel Pressure Regulator and we heard a sucking sound so I guess there was proper vacuum. I'm told that if there was a problem with the Fuel Pressue Regulator gas would pour out from it. The mechanic then checked every connector on each fuel injector. I later drove the car in order to "test" it and it still ran like crap.
In checking the plugs it appeared that the #3 plug was half tan and half (slightly) black. He replaced the plug and the car "seemed" to run a little better. I couldn't be sure so he took a ride with me. Seeing he was unable to diagnose my problem he gave me a freebie for his diagnostic services. This is a guy I need to stick with. :-)
Anyway... when got home I went ahead and changed the other 3 plugs. Later that afternoon... the car appeared to run normal again. Now, before anyone thinks it was the plugs let me say that a few days earlier I poured a bottle of Techron down the tank. Is it possible that a clogged fuel injector (specifically #3) finally got cleared?
Last week the alternator on this same vehicle went out. Since I had to disconnect the battery and the computer got cleared... the car has been running like crap again but this time the lack of acceleration seems more severe... almost dangerous. A "service engine soon" light has already appeared and it appears to be firing quite regularly since every now and then it starts to flash which I believe another code has fired while one has been previously stored.
Again, going to AutoZone I see that the code is still a P0303, a misfire on cylinder #3.
I've since bought wires which didn't fix the problem. I bought a coil pack but haven't installed it yet as I don't want to be throwing darts at an elusive problem. Correct me if I'm wrong... but my feeling is that if the coil pack is bad... wouldn't I be getting random cylinder misfires?
I'm also convinced that I've got a bad fuel injector. I was thinking of swapping the #2 and #3 fuel injector to see if the problem follows the fuel injector by possibly getting a P0302 reading. Good idea?
Last night I dumped another bottle of Techron down the tank. Who knows... maybe in another day or two this will be a non-issue. :-)
If any of you are still reading this post... thank you for your patience. :-)
I'd appreciate any help in this matter.
Thank you.
Greg remove "rider" to respond directly