WTH? 92 Taurus Wagon Check Engine Light

By the AC accumulator on the passenger side under the hood. Check ALL your vacuum hoses for cracks and replace any that look bad. If you have not replaced the plug wires lately, do it.

Hopefully, you don't have a 3.8 with a head gasket that's letting go....

Bob

Thanks, Bob. The plugs and wires were changed about 8-9k ago. I'll look at the vacuum lines again now that the sun's up. And thankfully, the wagon has the relatively bulletproof 3.0 liter engine in it.

FWIW, I'll post what the solution is when I find the source of the problem.

I think I found your problem. Your engine is missing! ;-)

How do you think a loss fuel cap would affect your engine?

A loose cap could cause the check engine light to come on, but I don't see how it would affect engine operation.

There might be a code stored in OBD computer (the code will eventually be cleared). You should be able to go to Autozone and get the thing read.

You can also go to wikipedia and read about the OBD for that era. It is different from what is in new cars.

If the engine is now running fine, I would check the oil (you want to make sure a lot of gas isn't spilling into it), the OBD and forget about it for now if the OBD doesn't show anything serious.

What other problems?

Jeff

No, I'm pretty sure it's still there. Now the miss is missing... not to be confused with the missus.

It's called: "grasping for straws".

This morning I got into the car and it's running completely normally. No check engine light; no miss. I ended up visiting the ford dealer today and got it read there. No codes stored. And luckily for me, the mechanic did it for free since he couldn't find anything. He drove it and said it seemed completely normal to him. He further suggested that I continue to drive it around and if it did it again to drive over immediately without shutting down and getting a mechanic to read it before it got shut down there at the garage.

Since I got this "free" car, I've replaced the radiator, plugs, wires, distributor cap, power steering pump, entire brake system including booster, master cylinder, etc., converted the R-12 AC to R-134... new condensor, compressor, lines, etc. But what the hell... I did get the car free of charge from my dad. He was going to donate it to some organization or other when I reminded him that charity began at home. Then I found out about his policy of "deferred maintenance". But I look at it this way: even as much as I've paid in repairs, it's still cheaper than making payments on a new pickup. And what pickup gets 30 mpg? Even though it's a little smaller than a pickup, the wagon so far has met my needs for a utility vehicle. I would very much like to keep it running.

Strange... if the check engine light was on, there should be codes stored as long as the battery wasn't disconnected.

There are two methods of retrieving codes on a 92 Ford;

My guess is he only checked on demand codes and either skipped checking continuous codes or had his equipment set to erase codes automatically.

Sounds like $3 to $4k. Not really bad. Plus, the insurance is a lot cheaper too.

Why kind of legs did you put on it? I haven't seen a car run before, but I remember things in Stars that the Empire used. Pretty cool.

Jeff

Other things to look for?

TFI module on dist. (takes a special shallow socket tool to remove) Coil (had one fail on my wagon) Fuel filter (change for good measure.) Negative battery cable. (has one go south on me)

I seem to have on on going issue with water in the headlights. I keep getting savage units, they work for awhile then they leak. I punched three wholes in a otherwise good one over the weekend because it had a 1/2 inch of water in it (did not pop the lamp)

I also had a donor once that when i tore it apart, found some chaffed wires shorting out on the drivers side going over the engine.

I need to change the rack on mine. Still figuring out the best was to approach that deal.

Bob

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote:

I consider it sort of crime preventing also. I live in an area that seems to have a lot of carjackings. You'd think they'd go after the BMWs and Lexus type cars but no... they grab plain old middle of the road cars too. But I've never heard of a carjacker who didn't have enough personal pride to walk on by a Taurus wagon. It is the ultimate in uncool wheels.

Of course, I have my standards too. They're just low.

BOB Urz"