What is wrong with this car?

jamies98lsc said:
lol yeah that ground cable is in a fantastic spot. you have to remove a motor mount bolt first to get it off, and thats not easy. hey nick i know it wont solve the check engine light but have you run any seafoam through the intake yet? we did it to E'd 97 saturday after you left and you wouldnt believe what came out of the exhaust now his car is running awesome, he had a stumble in that car too and now its gone, so is half the wildlife in florida!
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Couldn't I just buy another ground cable and attach it to something else?. I did the seafoam thing but in the gas tank. Did you dump it through the throttle body, if so, how much of the can did you put in there?.
 
since the motor is aluminum, the ground cable is what grounds the motor to the chassis, or battery, there is another ground strap on the engine on the passenger side so the motor would still be grounded if you didnt ground from battery to engine, will it work right, i have no clue! the seafoam can be dumped through the rubber hose in the middle of the intake tube that goes to the pass valve cover, there is a 90 degree elbow on it that i turn upright and put a small funnel in it, then i dump the seafoam into the funnel about 2 oz at a time, you will need someone to hold the gas pedal at about 3200 rpm constantly, the car will bog down everytime you dump it in but the person in the car must keep their foot dead steady and never push harder when it bogs down, it will race back up quickly once the seafoam is sucked into the intake, use the entire can, on a hot engine, then after its all in the motor, shut it off and let it sit about 20 minutes, then start it up and watch what comes out the exhaust. if you want, pick up a can of it again and stop by the shop again saturday and i can help you do it, its not easy to do alone in a first gen because the throttle cable is burried and its hot as hell with your hand way down there.
 
To put in the seafoam, undo a vacuum line, stick it in the can, and work the throttle with your hand to keep the motor running. Suck up about a third of the can, shut 'er down, let it sit for 10 minutes, then drive around and enjoy the cool smokescreen effect.
 
I've used the vaccuum tee in the middle of the intake. One side is a big vacuum line going to the brake booster while the other side is a small line. Unplug and plug the end of the small line. Attach a convenient length of vacuum hose to the tee. Start the engine and use the small line to vacuum up about a third of the can. Try to get it sucked in as quickly as you can without stalling then shut the engine off for 5-10 minutes, remove the hose and reattach the original vacuum line. . Pour the remainder of the seafoam in the fuel tank(with a half tank or more of fuel). Start it back up and throttle it up hard to blow out the smoke. Then take it for a very spirited ride to finish blowing it out with the engine under load. A very dirty induction system may need more than a single treatment. Repeat until the smoke show is no longer generated. After the fuel in the tank has been used it is a good idea to change the fuel filter as well.

Using the vacuum tee hookup in my opinion distributes the seafoam more evenly to all the runners of the intake. Using too much at once can cause loosening up too much gunk at once causing problems downstream.

I have tested this method by having a 'professional' induction system cleaning performed afterwards. The techs were bemused why there was no tell-tale smoke after their treatment. ;)
 
driller said:
One side is a big vacuum
line going to the brake booster while the other side is a small line. Unplug and
plug the end of the small line. )
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JP if we are thinking about the "same small line" {the one that crosses over the intake and goes over by the AC drier)
I disconnected that line at the "Drier" end, and used the small line to siphon the seafoam with, it happens to be of just the right size that it's very hard to bog the motor down.

First time I used the brake booster vaccuum reference, which needed a small line inside it to make it work

Second and Third time I did it, I used the small hard line that goes over to the passenger side of the car.

Worked like a champ!
 
First time I did seafoam, I figured that "all that crud" couldn't be good for the spark plugs, so I seafoamed it, then changed the plugs.

To my dismay the plugs were BRAND NEW LOOKING, and they had about 50K on the awsf22c's, they should have been "fairly well toasted" by 50K.

So now I dont worry about the plugs when I do seafoam, as it appears to do a FINE JOB of cleaning the PLUGS too!
(just a tip from the far side)
 
Well crap, I dont know what to do with this car. Here's whats done so far:

Changed computer
changed plugs
changed corroded battery ground cable and corroded sections of positive cable


Guess I'll have codes pulled again. Oh yeah, now the A/C stopped working. This is a problem I had a while ago, changed the control unit which fixed the problem for a couple of months and now its doing it again. Sometimes the A/C will start working on its own when IT feels like it. This thing has some electrical gremlins it seems. I dont know. Is there an easy fix here cause I am starting to dislike this car and I've been eyeing a '99 T/A..............................................:fart
 
nick i got your message today i do not have a ground cable for you, i did last week, but went clean happy in my shop and tossed all kinds of stuff, i mean all kinds, i even made two trips to anclotte metal recyclers with over 500lbs of aluminum!! sorry dude.
 
jamies98lsc said:
nick i got your message today i do not have a ground cable for you, i did last week, but went clean happy in my shop and tossed all kinds of stuff, i mean all kinds, i even made two trips to anclotte metal recyclers with over 500lbs of aluminum!! sorry dude.
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Its cool, I went to LQK and got one. They have a complete '93 M8 over there right now. Purple(ish) color that changes hues w/gray leather interior.
 
i have seen this problem on a few cars and it was usuley due to bad (cloged) cats. what year is your car? if it is 2nd gen it has ODB2 and it has 4 O2's if it is a gen 1 then it only has 2 O2's and it wont hurt to punch your cats out. i picked up about 4-5 MPG when i punched all 3 of mine out and the car sounded better too.
 
7 sek mark said:
i have seen this problem on a few cars and it was usuley due to bad (cloged) cats. what year is your car? if it is 2nd gen it has ODB2 and it has 4 O2's if it is a gen 1 then it only has 2 O2's and it wont hurt to punch your cats out. i picked up about 4-5 MPG when i punched all 3 of mine out and the car sounded better too.
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At this point I'll try anything, how do you punch a cat out?. Thanks.
 
Hi ... I am having a similar problem with my mark VIII... only can't attest to the rotten egg smell.... I will be on the highway for 30 minutes or so and the car will start bucking. Almost as if fuel starved on and off. It is hard for me to explain. Then the Check Engine light goes on and may or may not stay on. If it stays on the car sometimes runs ok until I turn it off and start on another trip. Anyway my Ford Mechanic is totally stummped ... and thought it was the computer. I had the computer taken off and tested and it came back that it was fine. My Ford dealership still does not know what to do. All I know is I want to get it fixed and don't know what to do.
 
CAD said:
Hi ... I am having a similar problem with my mark VIII... only can't attest to the rotten egg smell.... I will be on the highway for 30 minutes or so and the car will start bucking. Almost as if fuel starved on and off. It is hard for me to explain. Then the Check Engine light goes on and may or may not stay on. If it stays on the car sometimes runs ok until I turn it off and start on another trip. Anyway my Ford Mechanic is totally stummped ... and thought it was the computer. I had the computer taken off and tested and it came back that it was fine. My Ford dealership still does not know what to do. All I know is I want to get it fixed and don't know what to do.
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We are in the same boat my friend, I want it fixed and nobody can fix it. Could this be why so many are being parted out on ebay?.
 
nick to punch out a cat you will have to drop the exhaust at the flanges and look inside the cats with a flash light. if they are broken up you will know if you have a cat problem as soon as you drop the exhaust because chunks of catalyst will fall out. to punch them out all you need is a hammer and a blunt object, like a flat head screw driver and chissel or a punch, save what you knock out though in a box if you do this, i can get you like 20 bucks for the chunks you knock out from each cat! dont throw it away its worth money.
 
jamies98lsc said:
nick to punch out a cat you will have to drop the exhaust at the flanges and look inside the cats with a flash light. if they are broken up you will know if you have a cat problem as soon as you drop the exhaust because chunks of catalyst will fall out. to punch them out all you need is a hammer and a blunt object, like a flat head screw driver and chissel or a punch, save what you knock out though in a box if you do this, i can get you like 20 bucks for the chunks you knock out from each cat! dont throw it away its worth money.
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Tell you what, take the chunks out and you can have 'em.:D Seriously though, I dont see a flange on the passenger side, just on the drivers. I'm also afraid that something could actually get sucked up into the motor after startup if not done right.
 
the flange on the pass side is up high in front of the cat, on the driver side the flange is after the cat, and nothing will get sucked into the motor there is no way it would from the exhaust. can you hit the cats with your hands, get under and wrap on the exhaust in various places with your hands and listen for chunks to rattle around, i have a complete front y pipe with good cats if you find out that is your problem i can change the pipe and cats for you but i cant give you the pipe for free, i get 120 bucks just for the 3 cats for scrap!
 
jamies98lsc said:
the flange on the pass side is up high in front of the cat, on the driver side the flange is after the cat, and nothing will get sucked into the motor there is no way it would from the exhaust. can you hit the cats with your hands, get under and wrap on the exhaust in various places with your hands and listen for chunks to rattle around, i have a complete front y pipe with good cats if you find out that is your problem i can change the pipe and cats for you but i cant give you the pipe for free, i get 120 bucks just for the 3 cats for scrap!
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To be honest, I just want the cats gone. The drivers side I can have eliminated and the passengers side one needs to be hollowed. On a brighter note, I figured out what was wrong with A/C (finally), it is the wire that goes from the blower motor to the relay (black box). Went past your shop to see if you had one (wire with connectors on each end) Jamie but nobody was there so I went to the junkyard and got one.

I also had the codes pulled again and this time only 2 codes came up: 538 and 632. It wasn't a whole list of codes like last time, probably due to changing out the computer. Mechanic said to ignore the 632 cause it had to do with the transmission and since the car shifts fine not to mess with it. I'm not sure what the other code is, anyone?.
 
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