Sluggish and will not accelerate over 30mph

[jab677]

Hi All,

I am going to look at a 2004 Lincoln LS to possibly purchase. The problem is this thing is sitting at a garage and the mechanic can't figure out the problem. He says the car is very sluggish and will not accelerate over 30mph. He said his scanner is not showing voltage changes on the TPS. I have read this is a throttle by wire type of throttle control. I have ford specific scanning software and tools so I am going to see what I can find out code wise and what not. But my question is there any written test procedure to test the throttle by wire system? Thanks in advance!

Jeff

 

[joegr]

As far as written test procedures, there's just what's in the factory service manuals that I am aware of. What's not in the manual, is that many throttle by wire problems are actually caused by bad ignition coils. If this 04 has less than 100K miles on it, Ford will test and replace the failed coils at their expense.
That said, if the message center isn't displaying an ETC failsafe warning, your problem is probably somewhere else. The transmission would be one suspect, clogged catalytic converters would be another.

 

[jab677]

Thanks for the input. I am going to look at the car myself tomorrow so I will add the details after I know more. It would be nice to pick up an 04 with less than 60k miles for $6k if its an easy fix.

 

[JMC]

first bet would be bad ignition coils and spark plugs.

 

[Mechanicboy]

If it's not coils related I'd say plugged cats, but that's without knowing any other information.

 

[01continental]

My '06 had the same problem, no CEL ever. The only difference is mine started as a small miss and graduated to not doing anything when floored. After feathering the gas it would go over 30 but would barely run. Now that I think about it, the problem was worse as the car warmed-up to operating temp.I took a chance and ordered Ebay coils and 8 new plugs to go with them. Runs like new now. At the time my car only had 48k miles.