Gavin Allan
Well-Known Member
Vacuum leak somewhere?
Out of Answers - Please Help!
- Thread starter Chris M 2
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Dreman
Well-Known Member
I like changing parts. It's cheaper if I do it than if the dealership does it!
My opinion of dealers just died the day I took my little LTD LX with the 302 HO to the dealership to find out why it wouldn't idle smoothly. The dealership service manager didn't know Ford put a 302HO in a little LTD. After a $350 bill for the new solenoid array the service bulletin said it needed, it still drove and idled the same. After the service manager held up a part and said "we think it's this now", I decided to try my luck elsewhere. I took it home, bought the part later (for half the price I was quoted for the part alone!), and changed it myself. It wasn't that, either.
A mechanic found the problem one day. He spent some time on it, irritated that he couldn't figure it out, and finally chased it to a remote temp sensor not in any of the manuals.
My opinion of dealers just died the day I took my little LTD LX with the 302 HO to the dealership to find out why it wouldn't idle smoothly. The dealership service manager didn't know Ford put a 302HO in a little LTD. After a $350 bill for the new solenoid array the service bulletin said it needed, it still drove and idled the same. After the service manager held up a part and said "we think it's this now", I decided to try my luck elsewhere. I took it home, bought the part later (for half the price I was quoted for the part alone!), and changed it myself. It wasn't that, either.
A mechanic found the problem one day. He spent some time on it, irritated that he couldn't figure it out, and finally chased it to a remote temp sensor not in any of the manuals.
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scott degroot
Well-Known Member
Heres the thing, if the problem actually happens while you are driving(the vehicle is actually moving) then you can forget about the iac, the iac only only controls idle and will have no affect on engine performance as long as you are on the gas or are decelerating, in which case the truck may die. I can't believe that the truck is running this bad and will not turn on the check engine light. The thing that ford is really lazy about monitoring is misfires, I have driven some fords at least 20 miles with a known misfire happening and they will not turn on the check engine light, that would be my first clue as to what is happening in your case. As far as the fuel filter goes, there have been numerous cases wherer the fuel filter causes weird driveability cases, however wiht the year and your mileage even if the filter has never been changed I highly doubt that your filter is plugged...unless you get your gas straight from the ground. For what you are going to spend for an iac and a fuel filter and your time to install you can pay for an hours worth of labor at a good shop for them to tell you what the problem is. Save your money and go to a shop unless you are very pigheaded adn think that you can find all the answers on the internet...I know that comes off a bit harsh but I really don't mean you any disrespect...please understand this
Kevin Lang
Well-Known Member
of course I can find all of my answers from the internet.
Experimenting and doing it yourself has much merit.
In the time of mechanics that just swap parts to hopefully "make it go away", I'd rather do it myself, and the internet helps out much. The Zabteck crew and guys like Caymen have more experience with the trac than any shop, so I contest your claim and say that you'd get better help here.
Experimenting and doing it yourself has much merit.
In the time of mechanics that just swap parts to hopefully "make it go away", I'd rather do it myself, and the internet helps out much. The Zabteck crew and guys like Caymen have more experience with the trac than any shop, so I contest your claim and say that you'd get better help here.
scott degroot
Well-Known Member
The big thing in my last post is to "FIND A GOOD SHOP". More and more nowadays its the publics mentality that they are automatically going to get screwed when they go to a shop, but what's sad is that they are in a majority of the cases. I take pride in the fact that when you come to me to get your concern addressed that I am going to find your problem and tell you what the exact casue of the problem is without guessing, and while the these forums are a very good place to do research they are in no means a substitute for an "experienced mechanics" knowledge. What one person may describe to the mechanic is going on with their vehicle is in alot of cases the exact opposite of what a "good mechanic" experiences. Yes trial and error are a very good way of learning but with the ever increasing prices of parts thesedays and the chance of an inexperienced person inadvertantly probing the wrong wire and frying a computer system on a vehicle are you sure that you are willing to make that $1000 mistake...that's an expensive learning curve. Years ago any joe schmoo could put some spark plugs and a fuel filter in their car and cure about 95% of the problems but todays vehicles have more computing power and are more complex than the first space shuttle that flew....can you fix that also by reading about it on the internet???
Kevin Lang
Well-Known Member
To be smart, Yes 
I was scarred from shops when Goodyear repaired my brakes and didn't clamp a hose down so I lost all braking except the "backup" and the frantic ebrake push in traffic, and when they installed struts and didn't reaffix the rear seat back so when I stopped at a light, it slammed forward.
(1992 buick lesabre, btw)
After that, goodyear and shops were gone. Can't say I like the more local shops, they look too redneck ish to me and they have ricer and lifted truck high school dropout clients...and most also sell used cars out front, which is a turn off..."yeah, we can't fix it, but we'll take it off your hands for you..." cough cough.
Auto computation still adheres to the 1996 standards for obdII, so it isn't that advanced.
**The high school graphing calculators mandatory for all maths are more powerful than that of the Saturn V moon rocket.
I have a relationship of mutual respect with mah automobiles. Ah can keep them running, and ah shall. Not any automobile, ah don't fancy mahself a "service technician", but more of the rural doctor who knows his clientèle well and can treat them better than any "city doctah".
It would take something incurable by my means to have to go to the city hospital, which is metaphorically the shop, as--like you say--I am part of the majority that has been scarred by lazy cost cutting slacker shops.
(and most car manuals are on cd/dvd, which are already pc-formatted and ready to go onto the internet lol)
I was scarred from shops when Goodyear repaired my brakes and didn't clamp a hose down so I lost all braking except the "backup" and the frantic ebrake push in traffic, and when they installed struts and didn't reaffix the rear seat back so when I stopped at a light, it slammed forward.
(1992 buick lesabre, btw)
After that, goodyear and shops were gone. Can't say I like the more local shops, they look too redneck ish to me and they have ricer and lifted truck high school dropout clients...and most also sell used cars out front, which is a turn off..."yeah, we can't fix it, but we'll take it off your hands for you..." cough cough.
Auto computation still adheres to the 1996 standards for obdII, so it isn't that advanced.
**The high school graphing calculators mandatory for all maths are more powerful than that of the Saturn V moon rocket.
I have a relationship of mutual respect with mah automobiles. Ah can keep them running, and ah shall. Not any automobile, ah don't fancy mahself a "service technician", but more of the rural doctor who knows his clientèle well and can treat them better than any "city doctah".
It would take something incurable by my means to have to go to the city hospital, which is metaphorically the shop, as--like you say--I am part of the majority that has been scarred by lazy cost cutting slacker shops.
(and most car manuals are on cd/dvd, which are already pc-formatted and ready to go onto the internet lol)
scott degroot
Well-Known Member
Like I said before you have to find a "good shop"...Goodyears and Firestones are a place to buy tires not get your car reapired. OBD II is a base protocol that all mgfs must follow at a minimum for diagnostic monitoring, they all have their own built in network and they all have their different ways of doing things. Car manuals such as Chiltons and Haynes, those seem to be the popular ones, are good if you need to know how to change your spark plugs but IMO their lack of any useful information ends there.
Nice accent by the way
Nice accent by the way
Kevin Lang
Well-Known Member
Chiltons do suck, from experience....the 1990-1993 lesabres were all different, yet the manual includes them all and says the procedures were the same.
...but eBay provided me with the shop manuals as created by buick.
The problem with finding the "good shop" is that your car will get messed up and your wallet abused in the trial and error with all the other shops. If a shop doesn't have pictures of fast & furious rice or japanese drift cars on the windows, and sell body kits and cheap shiny rims to get that look with your corolla or civic, or it doesn't lift dodges 10 inches and supply a free set of truck'n_nutz with each visit, or install multiple thousand watt sound setups with neon glow, then it does not exist here.
If you want an oil change, and you haven't resolved to do it yourself as I did (the fumoto valve is cool, thanks guys) then Jiffy Lube is your only option,unless you want to find your vehicle 3 inches higher than when you dropped it off, or a thousand watt sub crappily wired in, replacing the entire backseat.
Accent wise, I find myself sometimes actually throwing the a elongation out in speech, so I was thinking like so and decided to try and text it.
...but eBay provided me with the shop manuals as created by buick.
The problem with finding the "good shop" is that your car will get messed up and your wallet abused in the trial and error with all the other shops. If a shop doesn't have pictures of fast & furious rice or japanese drift cars on the windows, and sell body kits and cheap shiny rims to get that look with your corolla or civic, or it doesn't lift dodges 10 inches and supply a free set of truck'n_nutz with each visit, or install multiple thousand watt sound setups with neon glow, then it does not exist here.
If you want an oil change, and you haven't resolved to do it yourself as I did (the fumoto valve is cool, thanks guys) then Jiffy Lube is your only option,unless you want to find your vehicle 3 inches higher than when you dropped it off, or a thousand watt sub crappily wired in, replacing the entire backseat.
Accent wise, I find myself sometimes actually throwing the a elongation out in speech, so I was thinking like so and decided to try and text it.
Chris M 2
Active Member
Hey all (if anyone is still cares by this time... ) it appears the problem was the fuel filter. Changed that out Saturday and for now, the truck is running MUCH better. God willing, it'll stay that way...
) it appears the problem was the fuel filter. Changed that out Saturday and for now, the truck is running MUCH better. God willing, it'll stay that way...Scott Heckler
Well-Known Member
Chris - now you will make sure you replace it every 10k - 15k miles . . . . It is something you just don't think of much BEFORE but you will now. . . .
Gypsy me
Well-Known Member
Wow Chris! XXXX keeping my fingers crossed! ha ha it never fails it is always something simple and usually the last thing checked! Contrats!
Contrats!Yardsale
Well-Known Member
The fuel filter is an inexpensive and easy to change. Always go with easy and inexpensive first (this applies to many things).
