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I have a 1999 mercury villager. It idles rough and when you give it gas to pull a hill or just to go faster it really runs rough and the check engine light comes on and has little power. Any ideas?
Country: United StatesMake: MercuryModel: VillagerYear: 1999 Already Tried: Replaced the spark plugs. I have not pulled any codes.
greetings,
you may have a misfire. That would cause no power and the check engine light to come on.
has this vehicle been tuned up?
how many miles?
most parts places will scan a vehicles computer for free
No It has not been tuned other than spark plugs and it has 165000 miles
if you get the vehicle scanned for trouble codes we will have some diagnostic direction
these have spark plug wires and a cap and rotor that can fail
This happened awhile back and it had been raining. I was told to check the plugs, distributor cap, etc. If that wasn't it, it might be an injector problem.
if this is a misfire we need to fix it soon
Tonight it was not raining so I assume it is a misfire problem?
this can cause the catalytic converters to fail
rain could cause an issue if the spark plug wires are weak
rain or water makes a good ground, known to cause misfires
Well thanks for your time. Your information was helpful.
A good test is when it is dry , spray the wires cap and rotor with a spritzer bottle
if they are weak it will start to misfire and you may see the spark jump to ground
these engine also can have bad injector plugs/connectors
heat makes them break and they get loose on the injector
Tonight it was dry (NO rain) when it happened. The farther we drove the worse it got.
if you get the codes and if you have more information I will be glad to continue to assist
OK...I'll see what I can find out! Thanks!
wires can fail dry too. If left alone a bad wire can cause the spark plug to foul and cuase the converters to fail
you are welcome
what did the spark plugs look like?
looked pretty bad
was the tip white, black
If you pop off the distributor cap look for signs or arc cracks
the spark will follow the crack and not fire on a cylinder
that is a common failure for distributor ignition designs
i don't remember color wise
if not codes and wire,cap/rotor look good we should do a compression test
you could check the injectors too, see if ach one gets a pulse. they make noid light kits for this
test light could be used
I'll check everything out and try to get some codes and see what I find. Any specific codes to look for?
p0300 codes 301 etc
ok...thanks!!
Brother in law is bringing his code reader tomorrow...hopefully. I'll let you know what I find.
good deal
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I will be here tomorrow
Pulled the codes. Had P0325 and P0304. Changed spark plug wires today, P0304 went away and P0300 showed up. Idles very rough, especially when in drive. Found that 300 code is random misfire. Any suggestions on what to do now? Maybe distributor cap and rotor?
I would have checked the cap when replacing the ignition wires. 304 is a misfire on cylinder #4 (300 is random misfire) and 325 is the knock sensor. The knock sensor is located under the intake manifold, not easy to replace. You can ohm the sensor out(500k-620k ohms) and make sure the circuits to and from the PCM are good. You will need a scanner to see the knock sensor and to make sure it is not causing the timing to retard. the misfire code and knock sensor code might be related. We need to make sure the injector connector has power and there is a pulse at the connector. Noid light or test light will work for this. If the cylinder is dead all the time you can pull the wire at the spark plug and test for spark. You can use a screwdriver with an insulated tip or spark tester.
if you did not replace the wires one at a time make sure again they are right.
jump the injector connector with the test light or just plug in the noid light. One side should have power with key on and the other side goes to the PCM which controls the ground to turn on and off the injector.
Experience: Ford certified 30years exp
Thanks for all your help...replaced the cap and rotor and that fixed the problem. Still getting the 325 code on the knock sensor but it's running great now! Thanks again!
I have seen a few asian vehicles(villager=quest) with knock sensor codes but no performance issues. The customers would leave it alone after finding the cost to replace.
thank you