surging in 97 Taurus SHO

[pkatkinson]

when the car is turned on and idling in park, there is a surging feeling. no surging while in motion. usually occurs after car has been on for a while, stopped at a stop light, or sitting still in park after driving around town. just had fuel injection cleaner put in about 300 miles ago and problem still occurs.

also, on the highway if i'm running at 55-65mph and then step on it to pass, sometimes it feels like it misses or i'm not getting the optimal power out of it.

any ideas on either question other than fuel injection cleaner???

[mwt878991]

Have you been over to

www.shoforum.com

Read the forums first to see if your question is covered.

You will get hammered if it is a common problem that has been asked a million times.

Mike

[shorod]

Originally Posted by pkatkinson

when the car is turned on and idling in park, there is a surging feeling. no surging while in motion. usually occurs after car has been on for a while, stopped at a stop light, or sitting still in park after driving around town. just had fuel injection cleaner put in about 300 miles ago and problem still occurs.

also, on the highway if i'm running at 55-65mph and then step on it to pass, sometimes it feels like it misses or i'm not getting the optimal power out of it.

any ideas on either question other than fuel injection cleaner???

Hmmm, can you describe the "surge" better? Does it seem like a miss when idling? Your '97 SHO has the Coil on Plug (CoP) ignition, you have a separate coil for each cylinder. It's not that uncommon for a coil to fail and cause a rough idle. I don't know that I'd consider it a surge though.

If you know someone with a scan tool that can perform the I/M Readiness check, run the check and pay attention to the cylinder misfire counts. If you find that one cylinder (or more than one cylinder) has a count in the hundreds, even if it passes the parameter, you probably have a bad coil on that cylinder.

Many people suggest that you replace all 8 coils at the same time. I didn't, I've replaced them individually as they go bad. I've had two go out in the year and a half that I've owned my '98 SHO. Of course, they were both on the rear bank of cylinders. I've got that down to where I can replace one of the rear coils in 1 hour, hood open to hood closed. I've also found that the Borg-Warner coils sold by O'Reilly Auto Parts are re-boxed Motorcraft coils and cost right at $100, which is less than half what the dealer will charge you for them. The O'Reilly Auto here stocks them too.

-Rod

[pimped96]

Just an observation here, but todays injected, dohc, emmissions conscious, etc., engines are called upon to be all things to all people. I notice my 1996 24 valve Sable responds positively to a quick blast down a safe stretch of country road once in a while just to "clean off the plugs" as it were. Kind of lets the engine do what it was REALLY designed to do! Just a thought.

[SHOcruzr]

I would agree with SHOrod. Surging during idle is a symptom of an impending COP (coil on plug) failure. Your biggest problem would be identifying which one. Go to a Murray's Discount Auto Parts website and call their 1-800 number and ask for the price of WELLS #C1066. The last time I checked it was $59.00 only.
BTW, check out http://www.v8sho.com/