93 Ford Escort Wagon problems

Hi! I have a 1993 Ford Escort wagon, and it is starting to show some signs of trouble. Today the Check Engine light came on briefly. The car was "sputtering" a bit at higher speeds, 55-65. We thought perhaps bad gas, but we have gone to 3 different gas stations today, twice putting the high test after thinking the first gas was bad. It's still "sputtering" and the idle was very high and erratic earlier today. There is a high pitch "whine" coming somewhere from the front of the car, not real loud, but we're noticing it. It stops when the car stops, as at a red light, etc. We're also having an overheating problem.....there is a problem with the fan, and we're trying to wire it direct, but with either wire as the positive <besides the ground wire> the fan seems to be turning in the wrong direction....isn't is supposed to direct air at the motor?

Thanks in advance for any and all help/advice!

Have a good one,

Connie C.
Youngstown, OH

Hi - I see I got no replies.....I did read this entire forum looking for related ideas.....found several things to check....a mechanic says it could be the torque converter?? anybody know about that?

Y'all have a good night, hopefully somebody will know something about these issues....

Connie C.
Youngstown, OH

Well I had a similar problem with my 93 Ford Escort wagon but it was extremely noticeable when it was wet outside. It turned out that it was the spark plug wires. I guess a few too many of them had shorts in them so it was causing a major hesitation/ stuttering while driving.

Thanks for your reply - I didn't think anybody was going to! We'll give this a try, new spark plug wires. I was reading here on the forum that some are better than others....we'll check out those good ones.

Thanks!

Connie C

For the most part you can just go with an original equipment plug wire, unless you are going to try and make your car a performance machine. You can even get your old wires tested at a shop for next to nothing to see if that is the problem before you go out and buy a new set.

I had a similiar problem on the same car. It turned out to be the mass air flow regulator. I had that replaced and the car runs fine. THE PART IS EXPENSIVE THOUGH, about 200-300 dollars.