au gremlins - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

02-01-2003, 20:58

hi .....my 1999 au forte has a subtle surge/miss/hesitation 1500-3000rpm most obvious after tourqe converter locks up.
have replaced fuel filter,plugs,leads,air filter,coilpack that had high resistance on coil 1-6. car has undergone extensive/expensive fault finding and computerised testing that shows nothing abnormal happening at the same time that something obviously is [surge/miss/stutter/hesitation] ford mechanic is at a loss to explain. a couple of days ago something strange also happened while parked with engine running speedo needle suddenly started flickering upward, revving the engine saw the speedo act in concert with the tacho ........got the car up to 70-80ks while sitting still in park.
had to get going so i drove off and hey presto the [surge,miss,etc]was more pronounced/severe.....got home ...speedo no longer acting strange.......drove next day [surge,miss,etc]back to subtle. this scenario has happened twice . ANY THOUGHTS WOULD BE WELCOME.......

Jamie XR6 · 02-01-2003, 21:07

I was thinking that you may have faulty injectors but that won't explain the speedo needle surging as well.

Why don't you try disconnecting the battery for a little while and see if it resets your computer. The car will run a little rough for a while until the computer re-learns.

Just make sure you have your stereo security code, so you can reset it after the battery is connected.

ebxr8240 · 02-01-2003, 21:12

Bad electrical connections ?? Including earths ?? Is a good starting point.
Vacuum leaks is the next, the whole crankcase should be sealed including dipstick...
Leads , plugs, coil, filter???

02-02-2003, 00:31

I have to agree with the speedo needle moving while stopped. My AU also does this. Checked connections at back of cluster, everything looked ok. Told service agent about it, he took a drive in it but as it only does it every now and then and this time it didn't do it. Does N E 1 know how to fix it?

02-02-2003, 02:43

try unplugging iac connector ,and putting it back in,had same problem last week and fixed it must have been loose connection anyway give it a go.

FalKeen · 02-02-2003, 03:28

dont necessarily try and link the speedo problem with the power surge/problems. with electrical things sometimes having a problem somewhere can produce another problem somewhere else, but theyre not actually related to each other (if that makes any bloody sense at all!)

i know this post doesnt really help you but what im trying to say is dont get sucked in to thinking that the speedo has something to do with it (hey but dont take my word on it cos it may!) im just saying that once you fix the main problem it usually tends to fix all the other little problems - computers i guess!

are you as confused as i am??
hehe i give up now, i know what i mean anyway
[motion]assumes the fetal position and whispers reassuring words[/motion]

Jase_ELXR8 · 02-02-2003, 06:17

sounds like you have two seperate problems to me. This may be of some help, and some people may have seen this before. In my old XD when the battery was nearly flat, well going flat whilst cranking the spedo needle would go up. I would say you have a bad connection/earth somewhere. Check your battery terminals first. They may look clean and still get a bad connection, so hit them with a bit of sandpaper. As for your miss i've seen it before on an EL, it was injectors...

02-03-2003, 03:55

longjohn1, what's the iac connector and where can I find it?