2000 Mercury Villager running rough and stalling

[Ranga]

Hi Everyone

I had an interesting situation with regard to my 2000 mercury villager which I thought I will share with you all.

When I start it and let it idle it will idle all day long, but the moment I take it on the road for about a mile or so , it starts to jerk around like it was not getting fuel or there was some ignition problem. If I dont get it back home, I usuall get stranded out, as it just quits and wont start again. If I allow it to sit for about 3 to 4 hrs usually it starts but just keeps wanting to cut out. I showed it to a number of mechanics and each would tell me that the cat is blocked, or the fuel pump is bad or the knock senser is to be replaced and one even told me that the intake manifold needs to be opened and a new gasket would have to be installed. I finally got tired of all these codes as each time it throws a different code and that would side track the mechanics. While I was out driving and trying to figure it out myself it just quit on me, and there happened to me a mechanic nearby and I had no choice but to go to him. He just took one look at it and said that it needed a new distributor and said that was the problem . I told him to try and see what he could do and , it sure enough turned out to be the distributor as,the moment he installed a new one , it just started right away and since then no problems. If it was the distributor then why was it throwing out codes indicating that it was the Cat or some other system ?? Can someone throw some light on that ??

Hope this helps someone who has a similar problem on their van.

[tempfixit]

Originally Posted by Ranga

Hi Everyone

I had an interesting situation with regard to my 2000 mercury villager which I thought I will share with you all.

When I start it and let it idle it will idle all day long, but the moment I take it on the road for about a mile or so , it starts to jerk around like it was not getting fuel or there was some ignition problem. If I dont get it back home, I usuall get stranded out, as it just quits and wont start again. If I allow it to sit for about 3 to 4 hrs usually it starts but just keeps wanting to cut out. I showed it to a number of mechanics and each would tell me that the cat is blocked, or the fuel pump is bad or the knock senser is to be replaced and one even told me that the intake manifold needs to be opened and a new gasket would have to be installed. I finally got tired of all these codes as each time it throws a different code and that would side track the mechanics. While I was out driving and trying to figure it out myself it just quit on me, and there happened to me a mechanic nearby and I had no choice but to go to him. He just took one look at it and said that it needed a new distributor and said that was the problem . I told him to try and see what he could do and , it sure enough turned out to be the distributor as,the moment he installed a new one , it just started right away and since then no problems. If it was the distributor then why was it throwing out codes indicating that it was the Cat or some other system ?? Can someone throw some light on that ??

Hope this helps someone who has a similar problem on their van.

Thanks for posting as most mechanics do not know this common problem on these vehicles.

The camshaft postion sensor is in the distributor and when it was got warm it would send bad info to ecu until it quit, cooling off would let it operate properly until it warmed up again. A common problem on the 99's and newer villagers. What brand of distributor did you install??? Richporter is the best with a lifetime warranty and reasonably prices at about $200.

The KNOCK SENSOR seldom fails oonthese vehicles, the code normally tells you a misfire,etc. is setting the code. The knock sensor just retards the timing a few degrees. Most times replacing knock sensor is waste of time and money.

sending pm.