Sudden engine shutoff

Schaefft

Schaefft

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As I wrote a couple of days ago I'm planning to get a rose mist Mark VIII in the coming days. I checked out the car on Saturday and couldn't find much wrong with it, apart from the typical rust on the drivers side rear rocker panels (in front of the rear wheels) it seems to be a quite clean car. Mechanically there seem to be a couple of issues though (atleast thats what the owner told me, I couldn't do a test drive, will do that next Saturday).

The worst: He told me sometimes (rarely) the engine suddenly shuts off while driving. The car starts again if you take out the key and put it back in again to reset "something". I have no idea what exactly could cause this and it does sound pretty dangerous to me if the engine shuts of in the middle of a road or corner and you are probably losing your power steering.

Also the transmission seems to have problems (he was told its one of the tranny bands, sounds more like a accumulator or fluid brake down to me, he sometimes got vibrations when shifting so no idea yet).

Also he showed me some small t-shaped plastic replacement part that should be somewhere right behind the engine (check attachment) that connects 3 rubber hoses (kinda looks like this: http://cdn1.autopartsnetwork.com/images/catalog/wp/full/W01331661441MTC.JPG ). Theres a hole in the current part he tried to fix with some liquid ****, it didnt work so he bought a replacement for it. Anyone got an idea what this could be? Its a bit hard to reach so he didn't have a chance to replace it yet.

Anyone got any ideas?

Ah yeah, he also has to lock the car manually with the key, if he uses the remote the alarm goes off after a couple of minutes.:confused:

1994-Lincoln-Mark8-eng copy.jpg
 
Sounds like it'll be a headache of a car, some kind of electrical issues with it dieing, trans problems..plus its rusty? All of what you listed above should tell you to move on..find a better one and test drive it..regardless if Is hard to find one in Germany..not worth having to spend a bunch of money on it right off the bat just to get it running right..that trans will probably exceed the value of the car if its a rusty 1st gen 94.
 
Yeah but I still got a rust free rocker panel at home. Otherwise the car seemed to be alright, nothing you wouldn't have to deal with with any other car of that age rust wise. And since the car is really cheap, I was hoping it might be a good buy as long as its some easy fix. If the transmission only got the typical shudder when shifting from 3rd to 4th gear because of a transmission fluid brakedown its a good point for getting the price down while being easy to fix.

The random engine shutoff is whats worrying me. Maybe just a faulty fuel sensor?
 
Schaefft said:
Yeah but I still got a rust free rocker panel at home. Otherwise the car seemed to be alright, nothing you wouldn't have to deal with with any other car of that age rust wise. And since the car is really cheap, I was hoping it might be a good buy as long as its some easy fix. If the transmission only got the typical shudder when shifting from 3rd to 4th gear because of a transmission fluid brakedown its a good point for getting the price down while being easy to fix.

The random engine shutoff is whats worrying me. Maybe just a faulty fuel sensor?
Click to expand...

Then get that price waaaaaaaay down. I mean dirty down!
 
some of my ideas:

dying crank sensor. its behind the ac compressor on the bottom of the engine. that was my random shut off.

the alarm thing is probably a broken "closed hood" sensor. unplug it. its up by the battery i believe. you will be good to go.

change the transmission fluid to Mercon V. and i would also do the accumulator upgrade. that fixes most people's trans shudder.

the location of that vacuum T leads me to believe it might be the T fitting for the IMRCs. if so, its just a T fitting.

and finally, if the price is right... i love a good project.
 
Cam sensor is what I'm going with and the hood switch is bad, making the alarm go off probably and as for the trans, good luck with that one. 93's and 94's had narrow friction material and in 95, they widened it but you just might catch it in time before it gets too bad. If the fluid is dirty dirty, putting in new fluid just might end it for you. I have been there and done that with the 94 I had. Others have seen it happen too but "not all".

The rubber T is easy to swap. I bought a new one from rockauto and it's in my tool box drawer. The one I had on the 94 was dry rotted and cracked and falling apart but it is an easy swap. Well, not too hard anyway. If the one on my 95 ever goes bad, I'm ready this time. That's a part that can't just be found anywhere. I hit up all parts stores and even a motorcycle shop and couldn't find one but rockauto had it. It connects right next to the throttle / cruise cables. Just loosen those and move out of the way and then put the new T on but if you buy, be prepared to be looking for another trans.
 
Yeah, the first thing I planned to do is flushing the transmission, put some Mercon V in there and install a new 1-2 accumulator. But that would only solve the two problems usually associated with those fixes I guess (hard shifts at 1-2 and shudder at 3-4/4-3). If it turns out theres another problem that wouldn't be fixed with those 2 things it doesn't make sense to do them in the first place. Anyone knows what usually happens when one of the bands go bad? It wouldn't shift into the gear at all right? Did anyone actually had a problem like that?

If the engine shutoff is caused by one or two faulty/dirty sensors it shouldn't be hard to fix it as well. I got both of them from a parts car so it wouldn't even cost me much to fix it.

About the car alarm problem. Is the hood alarm sensor only a problem when using the remote to lock the car? It works fine when using the key.
 
chris2523 said:
crank. not cam Terry. cam wont kill the car.
Click to expand...

Sorry, was thinking for some reason that the cam sensor would kill it and not the crank. I'm lost today.:shifty:

As for the trans, yes, I had the same exact thing happen with my black 94. I put in a new 1-2 accumulator and spring and fresh fluid and it helped for a little while but it ended up getting real bad and when stopping at a light or stop sign, it wouldn't come out of 3rd on it's own. I would have to press the gas and brake to get a high idle so it would up shift to 2nd and then 1st. Sometimes that didn't work. The war would just come to a stop and die and the only way to get it back into 1st was to put it in park and restart. I ended up putting a 98 trans in.
 
Well, test drove the rose mist mark viii yesterday and decided against it. The transmission is totally ruined Id say, I couldn't even find out what exactly is causing the problems, seems like pretty much everything made it shudder all the time, no way its just one of the bands. Maybe its one of the problems, but this mark definitively needs a transmission swap. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if it was the only problem. It barely could get up to speed because of that t-fitting or whatever it is. The engine ran anything but smooth so it was pretty much impossible to actually drive it faster than 30. Brakes were kinda week, too.

Plus the rust and other small things, it wasn't worth the 1900 euros he still wanted for it. Guess I'll have to wait for another one.
 
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