95 escort lack of power

[lawton_kid]

Hi, I have a '95 Escort station wagon (my son's car) with a 1.9L engine, manual tranny. About six months ago, out of the blue, the power just dropped off. It has gotten much worse since then, When driving it and you floor it (or at least accelerate), it feels like someone put their hand over the carb (old time term), or over the air cleaner inlet, or plugged off the exhaust pipe, just runs like a dog (no power). Going up even a small hill in town requires low gear. But it would probably do 100 on the interstate, if you had a long, flat road (maybe a slight downhill slope, ha). No missing, really, just no power. Tried a bottle of injector cleaner that didn't help at all. Well, finally I've started trying to diagnose the problem. No 'service engine' light ever came on. I have had this car to two GOOD mechanics in town, and now finally it has been at the Ford dealer's garage for over a week and they are tearing their hair out. Between all three, I'm sure they have checked everything at least twice. We have put in new plugs, wires (twice,sad to say), fuel pump, swapped ignition modules from a known good car. Checked exhaust back pressure, mass air flow sensor, compression, cyl. balance, etc, etc, etc. I'm running out of troubleshooting money.

Allow me to take up a little more space, if I could. There is a lot that I'm not sure of, as the mechanics themselves would say they checked everything (but give no detailed list), but here's to the best of my recollection. The car starts and idles fine, but while driving it sometimes runs poorly. (This is addition to the extreme lack of power). Also, the gas mileage is about half of what it was previously, down from about 35 mpg to about 20 mpg.

Mechanic #1
At that time, it had a miss also, so he put in new plugs and plug wires. That cured the miss, but he didn't have time for further analysis, except that he said it could be:
A) exhaust pluggage
B) dirty injector. (wanted to run a complete injector flush deal, whatever that was)
C) said that he cleaned and (recharged or something) the MAF sensor
D) nothing showed up his big computer, but he did say that the plugs were badly burnt, like it had been running lean for some time.

Mechanic #2 had it for a few days and checked a bunch of stuff, then checked the fuel pump pressure and said it was bad. We brought the car home and put in a new fuel pump from Napa. Still ran the same. Just had a new fuel filter recently, so didn't change it again. We took it back to him (he rechecked the pressure and said it was still low pressure), he found out that there was a bad Schrader valve in that test connection, replaced it, and pressure was ok, so probably the old fuel pump was ok, too. Left it there and he checked the following:
A) put it on his smaller computer and said the ignition all looked fine.
B) said the exhaust pressure seemed fine at about 1# backpressure when they revved it up.
C) not sure if he checked the MAF sensor
D) checked the timer belt and timing
E) said he checked everything else, but don't have a complete list.
F) said a dirty injector will usually cause a miss, so didn't go further
G) said it could possibly be a bad ignition module, but didn't want to just replace it, as for the expense and it did check out ok on his machine.

Mechanics #3 (Ford Dealer) Also, kind of hard to say ALL of what they checked, as they sure don't say much, but I do know that they checked the following:

They did put on new plug wires (again) and:
A) fuel pressure check = ok
B) ran injector test = ok
C) spark duration relative compression test = all ok
D) exhaust back pressure = ok
E) regapped plugs = ok
F) install new spark plug wires = ok
G) test coil pack = ok
H) test ignition module = ok

Costs so far:
Mechanic #1 $130
Mechanic #2 $ 200 - 250 my estimate
Ford dealer $ 384
Fuel pump $ 85 - we installed
Grand Total $ 799 - 849 (so far)

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, still runs as bad or worse than before.
Allen

[mechy1barry]

try m.a.f.sensor first.disconnect and see how it runs,(might set engine code).check the cat and see if its loose,could be plugging exhaust on revs.

[jeffescortlx]

I noticed no one checked or replaced the O2 sensor. That has every thing to do with gas milage, performance and air fuel ratio, it could cause the white colored spark plugs and loss of power but a lean condition doesnt exsplain bad gas milage, they conterdict them self's.
There about $60 for a direct replacement and should be changed every 60k.
A CEL will not allways come on for a bad O2, it could be riding on the boarder line of failing.

A compresstion test might not be a bad idea.

Unpluging the MAF will prove that the fail safe defult mode works and thats about it, MAF can go bad and cause bucking and drivability problems, but if it was tested I would move on to other things...like the O2 sensor.

On another note, I would ask for a refund from the shops that did not fix the problem but charged you anyways.

[lawton_kid]

Thanks for the ideas and help everyone. Right now, I have the car back at mechanic #1, as he is probably the most proficient and never had the time previously to real delve into it. I’ll keep you updated and pass along the list of things to check to him.

Allen

[homefree]

Check this out, Jack up the back of your car and try to spin the back tires, I had the E-BRAKE stick on mine even after the lever was back down all the way.
What happens is the part that the E-BRAKE cable goes into (i'm taking by the brake pads) will rust and stick and the for your rear brakes wont release all the way. I had to take mine all apart and wd-40 them and beat on them to come lose.
Check it out i'll beat thats your problem.
I had to replace the pads because they got so hot that they cracked. Keep us posted . Thanks

[lawton_kid]

Thanks homefree,
I'll add it to my list of things to check when I get it home from mechanic #1.

Allen

[Rare_Fate]

my 1993 went to a jump power phase too. It turns out it a very common thing for the escort. simple solution is the timing belt...needs to be replaced.

check out the timing belt...

[lawton_kid]

Thanks Rare_Fate, another thing to add to my list. If this mechanic (where the car is at now) can't figure it out, it's coming back to my garage and work on it myself until I figure something out.
Thanks again,
Allen

[lawton_kid]

Escort Update 01-16-04

I also have a ’95 Escort of my own that my son was using while the mechanics were working on his. I got his Escort back from mechanic #1, who really didn’t have a lot of time to work on it for very long. My son came home this weekend and we started swapping and checking parts. We checked the following:

1. Timing belt WAS checked out previously by mechanic #2.
2. Had the catalytic converter and exhaust checked at Midas for back pressure, etc., and they said all is fine.
3. Hook up vacuum gauge. 15-16” vacuum at idle (same as my good-running Escort). We are at nearly 5000 feet above sea level. Unhooked ALL vacuum line from central manifold (vacuum distributor) and plug lines. Vacuum stayed about the same and engine ran the same or worse (normal, I’d say, for having some items not connected)
4. Checked EGR with vacuum pump tester -seems to work fine. Kills motor right away when vacuum is applied, returns to normal when vacuum removed.
5. Swap out PCM (power train control module) – no change
6. Ran with MAP sensor disconnected – no change (mechanic #1 had checked it previously and said it was ok).
7. Pulled connection from ECT (engine coolant temperature) sensor and test drive. IMMEDIATELY HAD FULL POWER RESTORED, but only for about a minute or two of driving and then resorted to it’s old self. Hooked it back up and poor performance continued. Unhooked again and same FULL POWER for a few minutes.
8. Swap out ECT sensor – no change
9. Ran with O2 sensor disconnected – no change
10. Swap out O2 sensor – no change

Nearly back to square one, except that we can maybe rule out a few things.
By pulling the ECT connection, we feel that we gave it a rich mixture and caused the excellent running for a minute or two, but what is causing the lean mixture is still a mystery to me.

[mechy1barry]

how many hoses to the oil filler cap?1/2/3/none?
poss maf/air leak.

[lawton_kid]

Thanks for the reply mechy1barry,

No hoses going to the oil filler cap, it is just a screw-type cap on top the valve cover (camshaft cover?). It's an overhead cam engine.

We have tried a different MAF sensor from another car and can't hear any vacuum leaks, but that's not saying that there couldn't be any. Not sure of the best way to check for vac leaks. I used my hand vac pump on each vacuum line going to the vac distributor with the car off and the ones that should hold vacuum do (checked them against my good Escort). Don't know how to check for a vac leak around the MAF sensor.
Thanks again.

[homefree]

Did you check to see if your rear brakes are releasing? When i used my parking brake they wouldn't release all the way. This maybe part of your problem. Yours maybe hanging up also. It sure sounds like there isn't any thing wrong with your motor after all the testing that you have had doneand they didn't find any thing.How many miles are on this motor? Good Luck

[jeffescortlx]

I would check the fuel pressure again, could be a faulty FPR, should be 32psi at idel and jump to 40psi at WOT.

Did you reset the computer after swaping to a new O2 sensor?

It might be worth to try new ECT sensor.

[lawton_kid]

Thanks for the replies, fellas.

Tomorrow, we'll test the rear brakes releasing.

Tested the fuel pressure again today and it is about those specs.

Swapped the whole fuel rail, injectors, and FPR with a known good set yesterday also.

How in the heck do you reset the computer????????????? Do you mean just to disconnect the negative battery cable for awhile?? If so, yes, we always have been unhooking the neg. cable when we swap sensors.

Swapped the ECT with a known good one yesterday.

We'll keep plugging away.
Thanks again.

[ebritt]

Try a compression test. My 95 tracer did the same thing just before it dropped a chunk of valve seat into the cahmber and beat the crap out of the piston. 1.9 engines have a hard metal valve seat and if it gets hot just right they will crack and spew. At leats thats the way it was explained to me.