Questions and Answers

Ford Country Squire Runs Bad Q. I would appreciate your diagnosis of a problem I am having with my 1984 Ford Country Squire station wagon. This car has throttle body injection and a 5.0 litre engine. Present mileage is 92,000. You have told me to resubmit this question after 1/06/03.

For several months in 1998, I had been having trouble. Every time I slowed down to turn a corner or stop the engine would kill. I suspected the EGR system. When I bought the car in 1986, the Ford Dealer's tuneup mechanic took out the original EGR system and installed an updated and improved system containing a screen which screened out the carbon. The car was under warranty so he also put new parts in the distributor. I think he also replaced the distributor module. From 1986 to 1998 the car ran fine.

In May 1998, my Ford Dealers Tuneup Man repaired the problem of the engine killing which I have mentioned in the second paragraph above. His repair bill reads:

"A CHECK FOR IDLE ROLL DIES AT STOPS ALSO SURGING" 1 RT*1120* Thermostat Asy - water 1 Gasket wtr 0/let conn 1 DY*681* Sensor Asy-Eng Elec Cntrl Cool 1 CX*863*A Sensor Asy 78667 EEC Tested Codes 51 and 31, Diag and replaced engine coolant sensor and EGR sensor, engine was not getting hot, diag and replaced thermostat, scope and adjusted and road tested okay.

A few days after the repair job, I found that the engine occasionally went into a bad idle for a minute or two, sometimes killing when I stopped. In addition when starting in cold engine, I would get peutred fumes for a short time. I let this go for awhile and finally it cleared up. However, ever since this repair job, I have found that when the weather is very warm or hot and I am driving at town speeds the car will cut out and buck for an instant and intermittently. It caused me no problem on the freeway.

I noticed that when the car was in its bucking mode it would buck whenever I hit a rough spot in the road. When I say buck, I mean the whole system cut in and out instantaneously and intermittently. I noticed too, that in cool weather and cold weather the car runs fine whether the road is rough or smooth.

During the latter part of the hot weather last summer the bucking was frequent and then the car would run well for a few hours and then start bucking again. It bucked once on the freeway so I contacted My Ford mechanic. He could only suggest that he check all connections. Since the weather is cool now and the car runs fine and will run fine until next spring and summer when the weather warms up, I decided to do nothing at present.

Can you tell me why the engine bucks and jerks when the weather is warm to hot at town cruising speeds of 25 to 35 mph and runs fine at all speeds when the weather is cool to cold? This problem does not occur on acceleration. I will pass your info on to my mechanic so he can fix the problem.

Thanks,
Philip

A. Yes, you did resend it. Along with about 400 others. It's taking me a while but I am getting the backlog reduced.

There was a recall, "B47831201 12/01/1983 Campaign - Electronic Engine Control Processor ". From the recall bulletin:

We have found that the electronic engine control processor (EEC IV) installed on some of the subject vehicles may have been manufactured without a harness connector gasket. The absence of the gasket could allow moisture to enter the processor. If this occurs, affected vehicles may exhibit adverse driveability conditions such as stumbling and surging due to the intermittent operation of the processor.

So that would be something worth checking into.

There was also a TSB, number 84-14-16, issued 7/3/84 pertaining to a problem With Electronic Control Assemblies (ECA/Processor) manufactured prior to March 5, 1984.