Idaho Highboy
Click here to upgrade
- Reaction score
- 9
- Thunderbird Year
- 2004
Hello all !
I'm in the initial troubleshooting stage for the wife's 'bird. The issue is an intermittent (i.e. it ran perfectly today when I told her to leave it home so I can work on it...) post startup (circuit?) engine stumbling. I got to see it first hand yesterday, when the engine was already warm. The car ran like it was missing (badly), but only for the first couple of minutes - then it ran perfectly, including me taking it here and there, stopping and restarting the engine, racing the RPMs to 5K, etc. The wifie says that the engine has been acting like this since it post-winter storage, but only on some days and only when she first starts the car (i.e. after it's been sitting). The car has about 77K miles on it and is driven about 5K miles per year; oil and filter are changed every spring. I've replaced all of the coils with Ford replacements (years ago), and last year I installed a new air filter and cleaned the MAF sensor. The car does throw various OBDC codes for the O2 sensors from time to time, but they stay away for a couple of weeks when I reset them. I don't know if they are being thrown due to my wife's heavy foot when the engine isn't completely warmed up 🙄. This last time (i.e. right before I started troubleshooting) it threw upstream O2 sensor codes for both sides of the exhaust. I have replaced some of the O2 sensors over the life of the car, but also believe that these codes will present when other fuel / air components are not working like the computer expects (e.g. a dirty air filter, etc.).
So... has anyone come across this issue before? My goal is to be present when the engine does it's little thing again and use a stop watch to see if it helps in the process. I believe that some components are active only immediately after starting, for a limited period of time. My stopwatch is packed and waiting.
Thank you in advance !
- IH 😎
I'm in the initial troubleshooting stage for the wife's 'bird. The issue is an intermittent (i.e. it ran perfectly today when I told her to leave it home so I can work on it...) post startup (circuit?) engine stumbling. I got to see it first hand yesterday, when the engine was already warm. The car ran like it was missing (badly), but only for the first couple of minutes - then it ran perfectly, including me taking it here and there, stopping and restarting the engine, racing the RPMs to 5K, etc. The wifie says that the engine has been acting like this since it post-winter storage, but only on some days and only when she first starts the car (i.e. after it's been sitting). The car has about 77K miles on it and is driven about 5K miles per year; oil and filter are changed every spring. I've replaced all of the coils with Ford replacements (years ago), and last year I installed a new air filter and cleaned the MAF sensor. The car does throw various OBDC codes for the O2 sensors from time to time, but they stay away for a couple of weeks when I reset them. I don't know if they are being thrown due to my wife's heavy foot when the engine isn't completely warmed up 🙄. This last time (i.e. right before I started troubleshooting) it threw upstream O2 sensor codes for both sides of the exhaust. I have replaced some of the O2 sensors over the life of the car, but also believe that these codes will present when other fuel / air components are not working like the computer expects (e.g. a dirty air filter, etc.).
So... has anyone come across this issue before? My goal is to be present when the engine does it's little thing again and use a stop watch to see if it helps in the process. I believe that some components are active only immediately after starting, for a limited period of time. My stopwatch is packed and waiting.
Thank you in advance !
- IH 😎
This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, and Amazon Associate I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no cost to you.