LS powertrain issues

[NOVALS]

I've got a 2001 Lincoln LS V6 with a 5 spd manual transmission. Seems like I've gone through many of the same headaches as others in this forum. My warranty has just ended and I'm getting a strange acceleration problem. As I'm accelerating, it seems that car begins to sputter or hesitate. It feels like the there's slippage in the powertrain so that the car feels like its vibrating because its accelerating then slipping as the revs go up (between 1800 and 3000 RPM). Then when you get up to a certain RPM it seems to grab again until you change gears and it starts over again. It does this in every gear. When I rev it up in neutral everything seems fine. The annoying part about this is that it only happpens once every three to four days so that when I take it to the dealer they'll probably tell me that they can't do a thing until they see what it is. That's why I'm hoping somebody else may have experienced this and knows what the issue is.

Thanks, NOVALS

[cobradude360]

how many miles are on it because if its low on miles id say try a trans flush if its a sliping u feel does it make any noise and does it do it when u shift?

[CGGorman]

It only happens during moderate to heavy acceleration and/or high speeds? If so, it's the fuel pump(s) and/or filter.

[cabreuer]

How many of these are there and where are they located.? I too have a problem with sputtering and jerking at high speeds 65-70 MPH, Had the thing tuned up plugs, boots, and oh yea the valve cover gaskets. The sputtering and jerking does not happed all the time.

[NOVALS]

I took it in to Ford dealer and they tell me the car is misfiring. They couldn't fix it because they couldn't get it to misfire in shop. Apparently they need a code to figure out what's misfiring. The problem happens about once a week. Very nice!

To make matters worse the heated seats failed on the driver side. Sounds like a common problem. However Ford won't fix it. I've got 80000 km on it and warranty has just expired and I'm not original owner. Shouldn't Ford just take responsibility for these since it seems to be a poorly engineered component. All in all this is leaving a very sour taste!!!

[hollywood13185]

Iv got that same kind of jerky hesitation in my 2000 LS V-8. I cant tell if its tranny or if the motor has a miss. Ive have changed my plugs and fuel filter recently, and it does it moderate to heavy acceleration. I hope to god its not the tranny.

[shorod]

While it's generally not encouraged to post to old threads like this, I do appreciate that you searched the forum for issues similar to what you are experiencing. Thank you for that!

Did you change the plugs or have someone else do it? If you did it, were there any signs of oil on the coils or in the spark plug wells? That is a very common issue with the LS in the 2000-mid-2002 model years. Even if there were no signs of oil, it could be a failing coil or two. If you have access to a scan tool that can view the Component Parameters, you may be able to see misfires on cylinders even if the misfires are not significant enough to trigger a diagnostic code.

You may also want to run a bottle of fuel injector cleaner through the system.

-Rod

[hollywood13185]

No I didnt notice any oil and trust me I was lookin. LOL I read about that problem too often. But Ill try havn it plugged in. Thanks for the info Rod.