Hello people, last week I took my brother's '95 Town car for a ride but only to find out a couple of problems and I've been doing some research since then and I've worked out some of course. Here is a list:
Problems:
1) The battery runs out of charge after acouple of days without using the car even when I charge it overnight, the battery is about 6 months old and has been tested to make sure is not a deffective one, it only happens if I install it on this TC, also the interior and exterior lights flicker, I checked the output voltage from the alternator and is 14.6 volts.
SOLUTION TO THE FLICKERING: I cleaned a gray connector located next to the power distribution box under the dashboard, it has two wires (One green, one yellow) make sure you unplug the negative terminal on the battery before cleaning it (Thanks to Dereck for this) By the way this connector is called "Bert" LOL.
2) Also with the lights: when driving at night all of the exterior lights will go off at any random moment and will keep going on and off for some time, it takes about 30-40 seconds untill they stay on again.
SOLUTION: This was caused by a bad battery, it was still under warranty I got a replacement and there are no more problems with this.
3) The A/C Indicator screen and the Anti-theft system work erratically, for example the A/C controls will work but the screen remains off and when I park the car and get out of the car the key-in chime will make sound even when there is no key causing the anti-theft system not to engage. I noticed that if I put another battery in, this problem seems to dissapear, at least it happened when I tried with my pontiac's battery.
SOLUTION: Same problem with the bad battery.
4) The car feels slow and the SES light is on, I had it scanned and the result is a problem with the DPFE sensor (P1401) so I checked the connections to the sensor only to find out that it is disconnected, I plugged in the sensor and the car feels slower, it doesn't has a decent response when accelerating. This must be a bad sensor since my brother disconnected it. What other symptoms would a bad sensor cause?.
SOLUTION: Replaced the DPFE sensor but the problem still wasn't solved, after reading a bit more I found that the EGR channels tend to get clogged and that causes hesitation, stalling and backfire problems. To clean these you have to take the intake elbow (at the back of the engine) and you'll see a horseshoe shaped passage. Look at the
eight post in this thread for some pictures. Also check the PCV valve and hose for proper operation and cracks.
5) The fuel indicator on the dashboard showed a "CO" and only the 2 upper and lower marks, after putting some gas in it it went back to normal, maybe the fuel float was stuck?.
SOLUTION: Refilling the tank to the top and adding some injector cleaner got rid of this problem. Hopefully there will be no need to lower the fuel tank if you have the same problem.
6) After driving for a while the car started to shudder like an old steam train (choo choo!). This might be because of old gasoline?.
SOLUTION: Apart of the old gasoline this problem was caused by a plugged fuel filter and the clogged EGR channels. Since it had been sitting for one year I also replaced the air filter , spark plugs and wires (these hadn't been changed in a while).
7) The gear shift has too much play, would the info for a `94 TC in this post be enough for my `95 TC?
Too much play in...
SOLUTION: I took apart the dash panel under the driver's side (above the brake and gas pedals) and you can see an 'L' shaped piece of metal, this control the shift lever linkage, it has a torx screw which can come loose, after tightening it the shift lever goes back to normal.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can give some help...
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED.
Best regards,
Oscar