1998 Escort SE Stutters & Dies

Jun 26, 2005 8 Replies
A

I have a 1998 Ford Escort SE, and have recently come upon a problem. At first there were no problems with the car, I filled up with gas, and drove 30 miles home. When I stopped the car died. I then re-started it, and it ran with very poor accelleration(If any) and stuttering. My friends beleive it to be a problem with the transmission, but I don?t beleive a transmission failure would cause the car to stop running.



The problem seems intermitent, and I have still been driving the car to and from work without a breakdown, but I am not sure what to look at in terms of fixing it.



I was thinking spark plugs, fuel pump, or wiring issue???



I did a little experimenting with what causes/helps the problem, and if I floor it, or accelerate the car hard, I will get litteraly no acceleration. If I accelerate very very slowly it continues to run, and accelerates slowly(But stutters alot) The car also commonly dies at stops.



Befor the original problem bean the car has had no issues.



PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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T

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A

And would water in the tank cause the check engine light to come on orange?

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S

The first thing I would do is change the fuel filter.

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T

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B

Do you do your own maintenance on this car? What's the mileage on it and when was the last time you changed the spark plugs and wires? Sounds like you have minimal spark, just enough to keep it running. Is it also difficult to start up in the morning after sitting overnight?

Bob

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A

The car has been mostly maintinence free, but I usualy do as much of my own maintinance as possible(As I cannot afford to have higher maintinence paid for) The car has 185,000 miles, and the spark plugs are at least 100,000 miles old, I just brought it into a dealership to have the service engine soon light checked, hopefully It will be something I can fix on my own.

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A

"adoutsider" wrote: > The car has been mostly maintinence free, but I usualy do as > much of my own maintinance as possible(As I cannot afford to > have higher maintinence paid for) The car has 185,000 miles, > and the spark plugs are at least 100,000 miles old, I just > brought it into a dealership to have the service engine soon > light checked, hopefully It will be something I can fix on my > own.

The problem has been discovered, a bad ignition coil.

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8

"adoutsider" wrote: > The problem has been discovered, a bad ignition coil.

i have a 95 escort that vibrates and stalls under acceleration, the car was also maintinance free with all fluid levels full. Did the car make also of noise and vibrate or am i just out of luck. Thanks, Drake

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