1999 Zx2 Vct

A little history:

We changed the oil in our ZX2 just prior to a road trip to Wisconsin (about 700 miles roundtrip). My hubby decided to change the oil to synthetic because he thought it would help the car run a little smoother. The car ran great the whole time until we returned home, where it started to die when we slowed down to stop or idle and eventually would not restart at all.

We replaced the cam sensor due to the engine code we were getting, and then changed the timing belt and pulleys when that didn't fix the problem.

Now, the car is still dying when we slow down (though it does restart just fine) - and is very rough when it idles and usually dies if it just idles. We get a VCT engine code. Ford is telling us that it's a $400 part, but I've seen quite a few others here that have said it may be an oil issue because the VCT is finicky about the weight of the oil. Does this sound like the case? I'm slightly skeptical since we drove it so much after the initial oil change...

I'm going to go ahead and get the oil flushed and changed tonight to see if that helps - $25.00 is a whole lot cheaper than $400 plus labor! But I wanted to tap into the braintrust here to see what other ZX2 owners have experienced.

Thanks in advance!

You are right about the VCT being finiky. However, I bet the change of oil killed it. Ive seen quite a few cars that devolped engine problems after switching to synthetics. Toyotas, Chryslers, Mazdas, Fords, just about everyone. Try this, unplug the cam sensor and the car will start. run the engine at about 2500 and plug it back in. find a RPM where the engine runs fairly stable and unplug the VCT, if the engine changes tones then the VCT solinoid works, if not it's dead.

Mine went at about 80,000 and I drove with the cam sensor unplugged to get around. It just hurt the power a bit. It's time consuming but not to hard to do yourself, it's fairly straight forward.

-Mark

My car had this issue BIG TIME! It was the PCV Valve, check it along with the hose leading from it. They have a tendancy to rip at the curve going into the intake manifold which is on the backside of the engine on the bottom. This was a big issue with this type of car and Ford dealerships carry this part stock in there parts department around 25.00 or so depending on where you may live it might be slightly different.

My car had this issue BIG TIME! It was the PCV Valve, check it along with the hose leading from it. They have a tendancy to rip at the curve going into the intake manifold which is on the backside of the engine on the bottom. This was a big issue with this type of car and Ford dealerships carry this part stock in there parts department around 25.00 or so depending on where you may live it might be slightly different.

PCV valve won't throw a cam code.