sillystring
New Member
I bought my `95 ATX last Fall. I only drove it until the snow started flying and then I stored it for the Winter. It now has 89,000 miles on it.
From the time I bought the car it has run pretty good but always seemed maybe a bit slow. I always assumed that it was because I had owned 2 MTXs over the years and had just stepped away from a leased Mustang GT.
The SHO has always showed a CE light after hard acceleration but I never had it tested and the light always went out in about a minute. It had a bad oil leak which emitted a bad smell and had plug wells full of oil.
A few weeks ago, I bought upper gaskets, plugs, wires and assorted coolant and evap hoses to do an upper 60k. My friend helped me with the shim inspection which came out excellent. Before I took over we sprayed Gumout down the plug holes (with all the plugs out) and cranked the engine to clean the piston tops. I then changed the plugs with new Motorcraft, re-gasketed the head covers with new seals and thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) cleaned the bundle of snakes on ther inside. 9 jumbo cans of Gumout. I cleaned out the IAC, throttle body, EGR ports and then installed new Motorcraft plug wires. Replaced heater hoses and the evap hose from the top of the engine to the throttle body. Topped the whole thing off with an oil change.
After re-assembling everything I started it up and it seemed to run good. Smoother idle than before. When I took it for a road test the check engine light was back only this time it goes on and off a lot more. I immediately drove the car up to the parts store to get the car scanned. they only did the KOEO and came up with 172 and 176 which are lean cylinder banks.
So after a little research here I looked for a vacuume leak with a spray bottle of water. Re-tightened everything but it still is the same and there just aren't any vacuum leaks. Then I cleaned the wire in the MAF which did nothing either. So now I'm really baffled.
Could it really be 2 bad 02 sensors? I remember my `94 MTX doing something similar and it was the o2 sensor. Am I missing something or do I really have to go spend $90.00 for an hour's worth of diagnostics from my local mechanic? I think the car dislikes me as the CD player just quit with a CD stuck in it. Hammertime?
From the time I bought the car it has run pretty good but always seemed maybe a bit slow. I always assumed that it was because I had owned 2 MTXs over the years and had just stepped away from a leased Mustang GT.
The SHO has always showed a CE light after hard acceleration but I never had it tested and the light always went out in about a minute. It had a bad oil leak which emitted a bad smell and had plug wells full of oil.
A few weeks ago, I bought upper gaskets, plugs, wires and assorted coolant and evap hoses to do an upper 60k. My friend helped me with the shim inspection which came out excellent. Before I took over we sprayed Gumout down the plug holes (with all the plugs out) and cranked the engine to clean the piston tops. I then changed the plugs with new Motorcraft, re-gasketed the head covers with new seals and thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) cleaned the bundle of snakes on ther inside. 9 jumbo cans of Gumout. I cleaned out the IAC, throttle body, EGR ports and then installed new Motorcraft plug wires. Replaced heater hoses and the evap hose from the top of the engine to the throttle body. Topped the whole thing off with an oil change.
After re-assembling everything I started it up and it seemed to run good. Smoother idle than before. When I took it for a road test the check engine light was back only this time it goes on and off a lot more. I immediately drove the car up to the parts store to get the car scanned. they only did the KOEO and came up with 172 and 176 which are lean cylinder banks.
So after a little research here I looked for a vacuume leak with a spray bottle of water. Re-tightened everything but it still is the same and there just aren't any vacuum leaks. Then I cleaned the wire in the MAF which did nothing either. So now I'm really baffled.
Could it really be 2 bad 02 sensors? I remember my `94 MTX doing something similar and it was the o2 sensor. Am I missing something or do I really have to go spend $90.00 for an hour's worth of diagnostics from my local mechanic? I think the car dislikes me as the CD player just quit with a CD stuck in it. Hammertime?
