Ford: 1995 Ford Crown Victoria rough running...

could be the o2 sensor

Can'see your original post to know symtoms, but,my '93 Vic started
running rough after a few minutes of warmup, replaced plugs, problem
gone!
Good luck, John

Falcoon wrote:
 

Could be a bad ignition coil. Since you are distributorless, you probably have a number of coils... See if you can replace the one that powers cylinder three (a wreckers my have one cheap). The only other suggestion would be to swap coils and see if your engine error code changes to indicate the new cylinder.
"Richard Tocci" <net> wrote in message news:supernews.com...
I own a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria. It got 98000 miles on it, with a tune-up in the last year or so.

For the past 8 months, the smell from the underside of the car smelled like rotten eggs. Or, rather, old egg salad. My feeling was that the catalytic converter(s) were going bad and needed to be replaced. I'm not sure this was the cause but I remembered others talking about similar situations.

Last week, when backing out of my driveway, my car lurched a little bit. I don't know why it happened, but since then the car has not run right at all. Later that day the check engine light came on. I had the codes read, and it was P0303. Cylinder 3 was misfiring.

I checked all of the wires from the split distributorless arrangement. All wires sparked. I pulled the sparkplug from cylinder 3 and it appeared to look OK. It had a little carbon buildup on it but nothing I haven't seen before in good sparking plugs. When I turned on the car and pulled the wires off one at a time, the car's idle dipped slightly, so I am confident that all plugs are firing normally. I am going to replace them just to make sure, but I don't think the wires or the plugs are bad.

I replaced the fuel filter but that did not help. I also checked the PCV value and there is vacuum, so that appears to be working correctly.

Since this incident, the rotten egg smell has gone away, and has been replaced by a burning smell.

I have no loss in real power of the car. I can still accelerate rather well, and shifting gears is smooth. The only difference I hear and feel is when taking off and when idling.

Any ideas?

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let me know.

I suspect you may have a clogged catalytic converter - but, the smells
before / after lead me to think the air pump bypass to it (I think it has
one) might be damaged, blocked, or not opening. I would think you would get
an error since there are so many O2 sensors nowadays but it's worth a look.
The other chance would be an injector - look at the wires to all of them
carefully.

Some mechanics can tell how an injector is working by listening - they use a
wood dowel or a long screwdriver, touch it to the injector, then stick the
other end in an ear. If you get it just right, the stick will transmit
sound but it has to hit the right spot and also block the other sounds,
plugs up your ear. I tried it, I could hear the clicking but clicking or
not is about as skilled as my ears got. You could try it.

I did my 100k tune up on my 95 CV a couple of months ago. New plugs and
high quality wires. It seems very happy. Oh, I did the 60-70k cleanup of
the EGR passages, too. Easy. That's about it since I got it at ~55k...

Good luck -

Paul in Dayton



"Richard Tocci" <net> wrote in message
news:supernews.com...
I own a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria. It got 98000 miles on it, with a tune-up
in the last year or so.

For the past 8 months, the smell from the underside of the car smelled like
rotten eggs. Or, rather, old egg salad. My feeling was that the catalytic
converter(s) were going bad and needed to be replaced. I'm not sure this
was the cause but I remembered others talking about similar situations.

Last week, when backing out of my driveway, my car lurched a little bit. I
don't know why it happened, but since then the car has not run right at all.
Later that day the check engine light came on. I had the codes read, and it
was P0303. Cylinder 3 was misfiring.

I checked all of the wires from the split distributorless arrangement. All
wires sparked. I pulled the sparkplug from cylinder 3 and it appeared to
look OK. It had a little carbon buildup on it but nothing I haven't seen
before in good sparking plugs. When I turned on the car and pulled the
wires off one at a time, the car's idle dipped slightly, so I am confident
that all plugs are firing normally. I am going to replace them just to make
sure, but I don't think the wires or the plugs are bad.

I replaced the fuel filter but that did not help. I also checked the PCV
value and there is vacuum, so that appears to be working correctly.

Since this incident, the rotten egg smell has gone away, and has been
replaced by a burning smell.

I have no loss in real power of the car. I can still accelerate rather
well, and shifting gears is smooth. The only difference I hear and feel is
when taking off and when idling.

Any ideas?

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did
not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let
me know.

"Richard Tocci" <net> wrote in message news:supernews.com...
I own a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria. It got 98000 miles on it, with a tune-up in the last year or so.

For the past 8 months, the smell from the underside of the car smelled like rotten eggs. Or, rather, old egg salad. My feeling was that the catalytic converter(s) were going bad and needed to be replaced. I'm not sure this was the cause but I remembered others talking about similar situations.

Last week, when backing out of my driveway, my car lurched a little bit. I don't know why it happened, but since then the car has not run right at all. Later that day the check engine light came on. I had the codes read, and it was P0303. Cylinder 3 was misfiring.

I checked all of the wires from the split distributorless arrangement. All wires sparked. I pulled the sparkplug from cylinder 3 and it appeared to look OK. It had a little carbon buildup on it but nothing I haven't seen before in good sparking plugs. When I turned on the car and pulled the wires off one at a time, the car's idle dipped slightly, so I am confident that all plugs are firing normally. I am going to replace them just to make sure, but I don't think the wires or the plugs are bad.

I replaced the fuel filter but that did not help. I also checked the PCV value and there is vacuum, so that appears to be working correctly.

Since this incident, the rotten egg smell has gone away, and has been replaced by a burning smell.

I have no loss in real power of the car. I can still accelerate rather well, and shifting gears is smooth. The only difference I hear and feel is when taking off and when idling.

Any ideas?

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let me know.

Replace the plug wires.

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 09:11:06 -0500, "Richard Tocci" <net>
wrote:
 

Is the P0303 still present?

If so I would concentrate there. Keep in mind that the code will not
clear until the diagnostic for the misfire code is run under the same
engine speed and load conditions that were present when the code set.
 

This doesn't convince me that the plugs/wires/coils are good.

It may be easier to check the injector for number 3. Disconnect it and
note the RPM change and compare it to several other cylinders.
 

A rotten egg smell like that indicates the catalytic converter is working
heavily, likely because of excessively rich mixture or a misfiring cylinder.
If you still have a P0303 showing up, then you do have a misfire. Could be a
fuel problem, but more likely you have a bad plug, wire or ignition coil for
that cylinder.

--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/


"Richard Tocci" <net> wrote in message
news:supernews.com...
I own a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria. It got 98000 miles on it, with a tune-up
in the last year or so.

For the past 8 months, the smell from the underside of the car smelled like
rotten eggs. Or, rather, old egg salad. My feeling was that the catalytic
converter(s) were going bad and needed to be replaced. I'm not sure this
was the cause but I remembered others talking about similar situations.

Last week, when backing out of my driveway, my car lurched a little bit. I
don't know why it happened, but since then the car has not run right at all.
Later that day the check engine light came on. I had the codes read, and it
was P0303. Cylinder 3 was misfiring.

I checked all of the wires from the split distributorless arrangement. All
wires sparked. I pulled the sparkplug from cylinder 3 and it appeared to
look OK. It had a little carbon buildup on it but nothing I haven't seen
before in good sparking plugs. When I turned on the car and pulled the
wires off one at a time, the car's idle dipped slightly, so I am confident
that all plugs are firing normally. I am going to replace them just to make
sure, but I don't think the wires or the plugs are bad.

I replaced the fuel filter but that did not help. I also checked the PCV
value and there is vacuum, so that appears to be working correctly.

Since this incident, the rotten egg smell has gone away, and has been
replaced by a burning smell.

I have no loss in real power of the car. I can still accelerate rather
well, and shifting gears is smooth. The only difference I hear and feel is
when taking off and when idling.

Any ideas?

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did
not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let
me know.

You need to do a power balance test on all cylinders to see if 3 is
misfiring.


another possible thing is the ignition module is going bad. They can
cause a single coil to be firing weak or be off in timing.


Or you can have a stuck injector. Leaking too much fuel into the
cylinder.
You need to check the fuel pressure, see if it holds at pressure with
the car off.

Also, you can do a injector balance test.