My '95 has been giving me some problems lately. The Check Engine light stays on, getting that rotten egg smell from the cats and the car bucks on the highway. Anyway, last month I put in new O2 sensors and it ran fine, now its doing it again. Took it to a mechanic and he pulled up the codes, said that all the codes were pretty much 02 sensor related and for some reason these new sensors are failing. He put in two new Bosch sensors and the problem persisted. Now he says he has no idea what is wrong and that it is probably the computer or wiring to the computer. Any thoughts?. Thanks.
What is wrong with this car?
- Thread starter Destroyer
- Start date
Sounds like you may need some better quality 02 sensors. Some fords dislike the Bosch sensors... also are you positive that he is using the correct parts?
Motorcraft OEMs are not Bosch, they are different brand. TNK or something like that I forgot.
Also please post current miles on your car and all maintenance done, and please post the codes.
Fuel Filter?
Do you use Premium Gas?
What Spark plugs did you use and when were they changed?
Motorcraft OEMs are not Bosch, they are different brand. TNK or something like that I forgot.
Also please post current miles on your car and all maintenance done, and please post the codes.
Fuel Filter?
Do you use Premium Gas?
What Spark plugs did you use and when were they changed?
I've only had the car for a little over 3k miles. When I bought it the check engine light was on and the owner stated that O2 sensors were the reason. I changed the O2 sensors and all was fine for 2 weeks or so. Now the problem started again but this time its worse. When I originally changed the sensors the ones I took off appeared pretty new so that was the first sign that there may be more to the problem. Today after the Bosch ones went in and the problem persisted, I'm pretty much convinced its something else. Car has 62,xxx miles on it which is pretty low for the year. I never did a tuneup but the plugs and everything appear to be newer and the car runs great otherwise, feels quicker than my '98 in fact. I'll get a used ECM and see how that works out.
BTW: Mufflers are on and sound great!
BTW: Mufflers are on and sound great!
I didn't get them but there were quite a few. They really think its the computer so I'll give it a shot. Its behind the glove box right?.
jamies98lsc
Registered
no it is above the brake pedal just to the left of it, lay inside the car and look up and you will see it, why dont you come to my shop this weekend Nick and i will try another computer in it to see instead of buying one for nothing. hows that for service!!
What time works for you?. I'll be there.
I should have written the codes down BUT they were pulled twice and there were a whole bunch of them. First mechanic that pulled them said if the car had all those things wrong it would NOT run. With each code pulled the scanner said either the code was the problem OR the computer was damaged. The second mechanic which tried new O2 sensors said the same thing, he said replacing the computer was the next logical step and if it wasn't that then its somewhere in the wiring.
Multiple codes are best resolved by clearing all codes and monitoring closely to see which code(s) reappear first. It's common to have a chicken and egg syndrome whereas one fault dominoes through the entire system causing multiple codes. In such instances there can be such a matrix of possibilities it becomes hopeless to try to troubleshoot.
This is the usual result of 'ignoring' intermittent CELs and even worse, continued driving with a continuous CEL.
This is the usual result of 'ignoring' intermittent CELs and even worse, continued driving with a continuous CEL.
jamies98lsc
Registered
nick i will be at my shop all day tomorrow ( saturday ) from noon till i cant stand up anymore. so anytime after noon swing by.
I'll do that, thanks.
Yup, write them down, clear them, and then see what comes up next. Then try to resolve one code at a time then clear them again. Also for any electrical problems, the components are very sensitive to voltage, so bad grounds, a bad alternator, battery, etc could cause a lot of failures.
Today Jamie was nice enough to replace the computer with one he had. Didn't work. I appreciate it man. He also noticed that one of the ground wires going to the negative terminal on the batter wasn't attached, so he attached it. Once again the C/E light came on. I came home, had dinner with the wife kids and then went back out to the car. I dont have a scanner to keep pulling up codes then erasing them and so forth and going to a mechanic and have him do it is time and cost prohibitive. I gave the car a look through when I got back and decided to change the plugs, put on some NGK's. Wires look fairly new so I left them alone. The old plugs had gaps that were anywhere betweed .030 - .039. I gapped the new ones @.054. Still the C/E light is on but I gotta say the car runs smoother. I redid the ground wire that Jamie re attached to the frame and put a proper connector on it. I noticed the actual ground wire going to the battery was really corroded, I slit the black covering and it was THAT bad. Where does the large negative ground cable from the battery attach to?. I'm gonna give that a shot next, I think this could be the problem. On a side note, I drove the car a lot today and although the rotten egg smell was still there and the C/E light was still on, there was no bucking at high speed at all.
You're in for a treat.
The negative battery cable grounds to the drivers side of the block, down low near the motor mount.
jamies98lsc
Registered
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!
Do you have a chip in the car, if so.. remove it and rescan the car.
On my car, if I scan for codes with the chip in place I get a code indicating a "bad pcm".
mine is a 95.
If I remember correctly the chip writes information to the same memory address as the trouble codes are stored.
So if you do have a chip in the car.. remove it and try again.
Please keep us posted
hope this "thought from the far side" helps
Tommy
sleeper
Former LOD President
rotten egg smell is probably bad catalytic converters. the rear o2s will continue to throw codes as long as the cats are fubared. o2 sims will fix this. depending on where you live, you may be able to hollow out your cats as well, to kill the smell. this is illegal everywhere, but in some places you won't get caught (places with no emissions checks, like MI)
autozone pulls / clears codes for free. if it's a 95 or older, the scanner to pull the codes (the cheap one with the flashing light) costs about $30.
grounds are often the source of problems like this. i'd say 75% or more of electrical problems i've had have been traced to a bad ground.
fix your grounds, then pull codes, go from there.
autozone pulls / clears codes for free. if it's a 95 or older, the scanner to pull the codes (the cheap one with the flashing light) costs about $30.
grounds are often the source of problems like this. i'd say 75% or more of electrical problems i've had have been traced to a bad ground.
fix your grounds, then pull codes, go from there.