hissing noise, car dies at idle, cruise control stopped working - Ford Forums

evimoore · 09-07-2008, 17:38

99 ford taurus, 3.0L v6. Drives fine when I'm going down the road, but it dies or acts like it's going to die when I stop or idle. Hissing noise coming from under the hood. Just started today. Cruise control stopped working also - works intermittently. While driving down the road the throttle seems to stick - if I drive at 55pmh and take my foot off the gas the car stays at 55mph and doesn't decelerate until after a minute or two.

The EGR has been out for a while now, but the car has been driving fine. Not sure if this is related to that. I'm guessing the hissing noise is a vacuum leak of some kind?

Hope someone can help.

evimoore · 09-07-2008, 18:51

Ok, I discovered a few things. First, upon inspection of that big caterpillar like hose that connects from my engine to my air filter - I discovered that one of the three little connecting hoses had come loose. I pushed the little hose back into the hole in the big hose, so that problem is fixed.

However, upon further inspection, it seems I found another loose hose. I there is spark plug like boot that had come loose which is located just to the left of the brake fluid container. It's well behind the EGR valve. There are two red hoses that connect to it underneath and the rubber boot (that looks like a spark plug boot) is supposed to connect to some kind of vacuum that's protruding from behind the engine. When I reached back to grab boot the whole thing came loose. It was already disconnected from the protruding vacuum on the back of the engine, but it came loose from those two little red hoses too.

What's this go to exactly, and how important is it?? It looks like the main hose connects to the EGR from underneath. How did these all manage to come loose exactly??

I've got pictures, but they won't upload.

evimoore · 09-07-2008, 19:02

**tbird100636** · 09-08-2008, 16:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by evimoore

Ok, I discovered a few things. First, upon inspection of that big caterpillar like hose that connects from my engine to my air filter - I discovered that one of the three little connecting hoses had come loose. I pushed the little hose back into the hole in the big hose, so that problem is fixed.

However, upon further inspection, it seems I found another loose hose. I there is spark plug like boot that had come loose which is located just to the left of the brake fluid container. It's well behind the EGR valve. There are two red hoses that connect to it underneath and the rubber boot (that looks like a spark plug boot) is supposed to connect to some kind of vacuum that's protruding from behind the engine. When I reached back to grab boot the whole thing came loose. It was already disconnected from the protruding vacuum on the back of the engine, but it came loose from those two little red hoses too.

What's this go to exactly, and how important is it?? It looks like the main hose connects to the EGR from underneath. How did these all manage to come loose exactly??

I've got pictures, but they won't upload.

The spark plug boot like elbow that hooks to the back of the intake and the 2 red hoses is for the EGR system. The same thing happened to my mother's 99 Sable, which is a Duratec like yours. The elbow swelled up and would not stay on. I replaced the vacuum line assembly which includes the elbow and red vacuum tubes, not too complicated, not very expensive either. I wish I could find the part # of the part, it's been a few years.

evimoore · 09-11-2008, 11:15

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, found the part #. Ford won't sell me the boot alone, they want me to buy the whole kit which is $150. Sorry, but I'm not spending that kind of money on this problem. I managed to get the boot back on and it's ok for now. I took the car to Tires Plus and they said the boot is worn out and that it needs to be replaced. Anyone know where I can get a cheaper part for the car?

Canuck · 09-18-2008, 11:13

I had the same problem, I just put a cable tie around the boot. Problem solved so far.