95 Taurus codes & cylinder balance

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Jim Elbrecht 22 years ago

Despite JT's advice to the contrary, I am still going to try to revive my old friend. I'm [fairly] confidant that I can get it right for less than I could buy a temporary replacement. I've had it for 8 yrs so its the 'devil I know' rather than taking a chance on something new.

Any advice on where to begin is appreciated.

The codes I'm getting [still- despite having replaced the purge control valve & IRCM which I thought would have cleared #1 & 2] are;

KOEO

563-- High Speed Electro drive fan circuit fault [solenoid in IRCM]
565- canister purge solenoid circuit fault
625- electronic pressure control solenoid circuit fault [solenoid in PCM]

The CanPurge valve was frozen at about 1/2 open/closed & the solenoid had an open in it.

KOER

538 insufficient rpm change during KOER dynamic response test
521 power steering pressure switch circuit fault

And the cylinder balance test is weird. I did it last week & it acted just like the book indicated-- It identified cylinder 6 as trouble, but wouldn't repeat the test when I pressed the accelerator.

I tried it again today with the following apparent results;

1 3 6
1 3 6 ~ 3 6 ~ 3 6

The '~' represents what sounds like a long beep. It might have been that way for test 1 & 2 but I didn't catch it.

Not trusting my understanding of the new 'gadget' I put my antique tach/dwell meter on the car & double checked it. Sure enough with the

3&6 wires off, the car sounded just like it did with them on-- idling rough at 850rpm. But it did the same with any one or two wires disconnected! I tried several combinations & all seemed to give the same results. So now I'm at a loss. This is the first FI car I've worked on-- do the electronics [or pump?] compensate that well for disconnected cylinders ?

Brief rundown of symptoms & what has been done so far; Rough idle & no power- worse when cold.

Replaced; plugs, wires, dist. cap, rotor, ignition module, pcv valve, fuel filter MAF sensor #4 fuel injector [don't know why mech. chose that one] cannisterpurge control valve integrated relay control valve

I've replaced any vacuum hoses I found that looked the least bit cracked or loose. [with $5/foot hose from the dealer!-- Sheesh when I asked for 3 feet of it, I thought I was spending about a dollar, not $15.]

Any direction/advice is appreciated. [And though I appreciate the thought-- I probably won't be following advice to 'junk it' for a couple years anyway]

Thanks, Jim

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J

Jim Elbrecht 22 years ago

I just got lucky & improved things 80%-- but there is still a problem.

Walking past the corner of the car I noticed the end of a vacuum hose staring at me. Back where I began, the one leading from the EGR pipe to the PFE sensor. I kicked myself for missing it, then when I went to plug it back in I noticed that the connection to the PFE was melted. So I had plugged it in, but then it melted the connection.

A trip to NAPA and $70 later I now have fairly smooth idle, but still no power.

Thinking it could be a blocked Cat I 'T'd the vacuum hose off the PCV valve & started her up. I get a steady 16PSI at idle. [8-900]. Slowly revving to 2000 kicks it smoothly up to about 21PSI - then it starts dropping off gradually as I go past 2000. The shop tach I have only goes to 2500 so I didn't rev it past there with the tach on.

With the tach off, I went to WOT for a bit. It sounds like it is leveling off around 4000rpm, then it is rhythmically breaking up. Not really 'coughing' or backfiring, but just seems to be cutting out.

As I said, the idle is much better-- and much of the old power is back-- but something isn't right yet.

Any thoughts?

Jim

Jim Elbrecht wrote:

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BOB URZ 22 years ago

Do you have a coil pack or a distributor? Not sure on when they switched over to the coil packs. DO you have a timing light? Does it show a bright flash at idle connected to each cylinder? (that how i found the bad wire on my S-10) Have you looked at the plugs for deposits? Have you cleaned out the idle control valve? Butteryfly? Maf sensor? Checked the EGR passage for deposits? Many little things.

BOB

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Jim Elbrecht 22 years ago

-snip-

Distributor-- [With new ignition module, cap, rotor & wires- and plugs.

I'll give that a shot. [still haven't gotten to that- but the idle clears when the egr system is complete-- so I un-suspect a bad cylinder]

The current plugs just have about 1000 miles on them. The ones I changed had 109K & looked pretty clean- light brown- no burnt electrodes. [it had the rough running symptoms before the tuneup-- but they cleared by themselves. After the tuneup it ran fine for a week or two after the tuneup, so I've ruled out crossed wires or operator error on that count.]

Got to that. Things look clean as new up there. The mechanic that had it apart a couple weeks ago might have 'degunked' them-- or they are just real clean. The idle control and throttle control both look good & test perfect.

New MAF sensor- new EGR, new EGR pipe, new PFE. No carbon around the EGR plate where it meets the intake. The EGR pipe was clean but rotting out.

Indeed-- I busted the exhaust apart just before Ford's flex-pipe hoping that it was clogged. The good news is that it looks ok on first glance. The bad news is that it didn't cure the high rpm cut-out. . . . and I can hear stuff rattling in the muffler now that I can give it a good shake. The [2] Cats on this bugger are $300 at the cheapest place I can find.

I'll sleep on whether I'm going to spend that much yet-- especially without being sure what the cause of their failure is.

I checked the fuel pressure/volume. Pressure is good- 24PSI with koeo-- 34PSI at idle-- goes to 40 when revved.[and holds pressure for

15-20 minutes after the car is shut off] The volume looks like a dribble, but there is enough volume to maintain a fast idle [1500rpm's?] while draining through the tester's bleed line. 10 seconds of cranking bleeds a 1/2 cup or so into a container. [Probst says 5oz in 10 seconds so it looks like I'm close there.]

Jim

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95 Taurus codes & cylinder balance

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