Misfire at low RPMs

[mattocs]

Hello. I am new here. I have a 2004 Ford Escape XLT Sport. V6 and 4x4. 87,000 miles. I have had it since August 2007, when it had about 62,000 miles. I am going to go over my back story, and then at the end I will post my questions. So this past winter I started getting a periodic misfire. It would be at various RPMs. Sometimes at idle, and sometimes it would happen when I was accelerating. It would be so bad sometimes that the vehicle was almost not driveable. Other times, it would barely happen. I took it to a Ford dealer, and they pulled the code. They said it was a cylinder #5 misfire, and the plug and coil would need replaced. I went home, and did the work myself. It seemed to be fix it, for about a day. It started doing it again. I switched around some coils, and it still happened on that cylinder. So, I replaced all the spark plugs with NGK Iridiums, new fuel filter, new intake manifold gaskets, ran some good injector cleaner in the gas, and ran some Seafoam in via a vacuum line. This solved all my misfire problems, except on cold start ups, and sometimes at low RPMs. If I am cruising down the road, and the RPMs are around 1200 to 1700, when I give it just a little gas, but not enough to shift, it will misfire a bit. When the vehicle warms up, and it is idling, it will not do it. But, if I drive it, let the RPMs get low, give it a bit of gas, it will do it sometimes. I was in the drive thru at McDonalds today waiting in line, and it was running great. I kicked on the AC just to let it run for a minute, and as soon as the AC was turned on, it started misfireing. I turned the AC off, and it stopped. Questions!: -Anyone think it might be an injector issue? Maybe its very clogged, and when I am at lower RPMs. the fuel pressure is low, and it does not spray into the cylinder? I don't know what else it could be. Posibly a bad electrical connection to that plug? But why only at lower RPMs.... Any suggestions or help is appreciated.

[mattocs]

I don't think its a misfire at the lower RPMs, but instead it is a transmission shudder. I am going to take it to the dealer for a flush soon.

But...I still have shaking when the AC is on and the vehicle is at idle. Feels like a misfire, but it might be something else?

When I am driving at like 60MPH or so, I can run the AC just fine. But when the engine is at lower RPMs, it shakes.

This is my first Ford. I am used to working on Subarus. So having everything wrong with a vehicle and it being unreliable is a new thing to me.

[NoAmmo]

I can only tell you what worked for me... My wifes Escape was doing the same thing. I had Ford analyze the problem and they said that they had to replace one of the spark coils and plug, $1000.00 later (they did some other stuff) it ran for a few months and it started doing it again. This time I ordered 6 new COPs and plugs. (Got them on e-bay cheep... $120.00) Kind of a pain to change the back bank but it wasn't that bad.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

[Trublufords]

There is a Ford bullitin on a wire breaking at the computer going to one of the injectors on the bank under the intake.You know the three hard as hell to get to spark plugs and cops you just replaced and still get a misfire code for. LOL Blue