PDA

View Full Version : Taurus SHO mtx '92 woes...


firefly
March 9th, 2004, 07:22 PM
I love my SHO, but alas I'm having a bad problem with it.

To give you some background, it was driving fine up until about 2 months ago, when we had a real cold snap. The temperatures were VERY extreme, and I must have had the coolant mixed a tad too weak, because my water pump developed a severe leak!

I brought the car in and had a new water pump put in. Now when driving, the car loses power and the engine rides REALLY rough. I brought it back and they seem to think some cylinder's aren't firing. True enough. They said either seals gaskets (or other head components) may have been burned when the engine was losing all the coolant through the water pump. To make sure all the cylinders had the best chance of firing, all new spark plugs were put in, and this made no difference. They want to do the seals next. They are scared I may have a crack or something as well (from the water pump going).

I don't think that is the problem though... cause here are the symtops: As mentionned, loss of power, really rough driving and the engine light comes on ON OCCASION. Sometimes it will drive fine. When the car DOES lose power and drive rough, I notice that the tachometer drop to about half of it's proper reading. Say I'm in third going 30 mph... instead of reading 3000 on tach it reads 1500. It sometime falls to half of that (reads like 750) and I lose even MORE and the engine gets rougher still. Then all of a sudden, the tach will jump up to its proper position, the car will continue to run poor for about 5 seconds more, then as the engine light comes off, full power returns and my head snaps back as things are running great again.

I read that frequently, a crank position sensor can fail with a leaking water pump, and I'm wondering since this problem only started after the water pump went, if this is the cause. I know the crank sensor feeds rpm info to the ignition control and to the tach, so it seems logical to me.. However my garage takes the more conventional "cracked haed or leaking seal" view of the problem and are trying to desuade me from doing the work, since they do not think that is the problem.

We pulled error codes and the read: 211, 216 and 217

thanks in advance for all your help...

mdshunk
March 9th, 2004, 08:21 PM
While it's no cure, dump in a can of radiator stop leak (Barrs leak, etc.), and see if the problem happens less frequently. This can be a helpful troubleshooting tool to narrow down if it is a gasket or cracked head issue. May even temporarily solve your problem. For 3 or 4 bucks, it may assist you in pinning the problem down. Seems like it's worth a go to me.

firefly
March 10th, 2004, 04:59 AM
Thanks for the fast reply!

This was actually one of the first things we did, and they checked the old plugs and oil for signs of burning off coolant, and there were no signs of that at all. My exhaust smells fine too, no sweetness to it. However, just so that leave no stone unturned, I will add some stop leak to it.

I was wondering that if a cylinder just fails to fire because of compression issues or something mechanical, would this cause the tach to drop as it does? Also, how could a mechanical problem come and go as this problem does? This is why I *think* it may be the crank sensor.

firefly
March 10th, 2004, 07:15 AM
I added the stop leak, ran it for some 30 minutes, but no improvement :(

Any further suggestions?

rlfrazee
March 13th, 2004, 09:29 PM
Probably too late in my reply but all your codes are ignition coil faults. 216 is ignition coil 2 and 217 is 3. sorry havent looked a this forum in last week or so.......RL

firefly
March 19th, 2004, 11:18 AM
For anyone wondering what it was: Ignition Control Module was bad. I had to take it to ignition specialists, I would have chased this one for weeks on my own.

Thanks for all the advice.