Well, I'm just confused folks.

I've got an intermittent cut out in my little car. (93 Escort 1.9L 5 speed) It seems to miss and try to stall out, but with a little patience, and a lot of throttle, it recovers.

If I disconnect (or kill) the battery, the problem is much, much worse for a few days, but gradually improves. Seems to me that the computer is "learning" to compensate for a problem that I have not yet identified.

The car has an ignition module, no distributor...wouldn't that be kind of a "it works or it doesn't" item?

Doesn't seem to lose fuel...although I have no idea how to check the actual fuel pressure.

And I don't imagine that it's starving for oxygen.

In other words, it's got spark, fuel, and air...and it has not yet completely stalled out...it just trys real hard...bucking like a bronco...

Any ideas?

 

Have you pulled codes? I had one with the 1.9L, and if you didn't dump a bottle (black) of STP injector cleaner in it about twice a year, it did just that. Also, when was the last fuel filter change??
Tom

 

Fuel filter was changed last summer. It is probably time to do that again, but this problem isn't new or different.

I've not pulled the codes on it in a while...I may try that this weekend. Last time, if I remember correctly, I had no error codes while chasing down various problems.

But I will try some injector cleaner...I've never tried it.

 

How is it close to idle? Does it seem ok, then just kind of run out of power, and start jerking? Then you let off, and it seems like it has power, until you step in again? If this is somewhat close, try taking off normal, until it runs out of power, then back off a little, and real lightly step in. Fall on it's face, let up and step in most of the time is a plugged cat, hard to describe, but once you experience it, you know it from then on.y step in, if this succeeds in gaining speed, then I would suspect a plugged cat.

 

Idle is fine, and low speed is fine...the cut out is at 60-65ish. I've debated the cat in my head, and have done one before on this car...I wonder if there's any way to check it?

 

They can be flow tested. Higher speeds are where it shows up first, then eventually gets worse to whee you can hardly get up to speed.

 

Thanks fellro, but would that get better as you drive it? It's almost flawless right now...and I did go purchase some injector cleaner that I put in my gas tank an hour ago.

Tommorow, I'll drive it 80 miles and will try to remember to update this thread.

 

If it was the cat, it should get progressively worse, so it doesn't seem that is it. Maybe just some bad gas... that seems to happen a lot anymore.

 

So I've run the tank of gas through with the injector cleaner...didn't seem to help much.

I wonder if there is a way for me to test the cat myself....I'm stumped.

 

Humph. I had the car in the shop earlier this week for an unrelated issue.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ng-issues.html

Apparently, they found it necessary to disconnect the battery while working on the master cylinder/slave cylinder.

I know this because the car now runs like crap again. I've had it back for a day and a half, and it is steadily improving, but I know that it will only get so good.

It has to be something that the computer can "learn" and make adjustments for. Any more ideas out there?

 

I think that it's related to your fuel/air mixture. The computer can add or subtract fuel by adjusting the pulse to the injectors.

It has a 'base' value programmed in. If it has problems, it tries to adjust for them. First it does a 'short term ' adjustment -- in case it's just temporary. If it keeps up, it makes a long term adjustment. The short term only works until you turn it off. The long term works until you disconnect the battery. Probably when you have problems, the short term is trying to correct them, but it keeps resetting when you shut off. The long term is gradually picking these up -- that's why it keeps getting better.


This can be caused by leaks in the manifold, map or maf sensor ( whichever you have), egr , cracks in the manifold near the O2 sensor, and other things.

The dealer ( and good independent shops) can check your 'fuel trim' -- that's what the adjustment is called. If it's abnormal they can probably track it down. fordfuelinjection.com covers a lot of this stuff in detail. It's one of these things where the devil is in the details. There are discussions in a lot of the forum categories here that discuss how to check for some of the issues ( Ranger, F150, etc). You have a different engine, but I think that the management strategy is the same. I did read that some of the small Ford engines used some different emissions control designs for a couple of things. But, that would just impact how you check them, not what gets checked.

As for setting codes -- not all of these set codes -- pre OBDII set a lot fewer codes. Also, the generic codes are focuesd on emissions failure -- they're not nearly as concerened with driveability.

good luck,

ford2go

 

I agree with ford2go, it's probably a cracked vacuum hose somewhere and it's messing with the programming.
It doesn't take much of a leak to really throw things off.