Trials and Tribulations....

zintkala

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Hey Y,all,
I know I been gone for a few months or more. Figured I'd give you all an update on whats been going on and maybe get some advice.

First off I moved from Charlotte, Nc to Long Island, Ny two months ago. Went back to work for a former employer, left my hot roomate and all of her drama back in NC. I have only had 2 1/2 days off. 100 hour weeks. Crazy busy considering the economy. Also having a lot of trouble with my car.

Started right before I moved from Charlotte. The ever familiar shudder between 40-60 mph. Coils! No codes but the Check Advancetrac light would also come on. Two trips to the dealer to only be told that there was nothing wrong. Car was running still running good 95% of the time. Ran a 9.32 1/8th mile last time out in march. Took it back to the dealer again who informed me that the battery was bad and was only putting out 10 volts. Starving the PCM. So new Motorcaft battery. $109 Good price.

Moved to NY. Car is starting to run much worse and is now shifting funny. ABS problems and the Check Advancetrac light is on most of the time. Trip to Smithtown Lincoln Mercury. Flash it back to stock, drove it for a few days so that it had a drive history and took her in. I get her back 4 days later with a new steering rack, Yaw sensor for the Advancetrac, Valve body, Tranny Solenoid pack, and new NGK Laser iridium plugs. While they were checking the coils they put them in for free, they also did a front end alignment when they put on the steering rack again for free "since they were already in there". Good guys, very small shop and very personal service. I recommend them if you are here on Long Island. All under warranty thank god.

I get 3 miles form the shop and the Check Advanctrac light is on and I now have an intermittent problem with the right front brake. It will drag and occasionally the pedal will get very firm and there will be a metallic grinding sound and a clicking that you can feel through the pedal when coming to a stop. Back to the shop the next day. This time the tech rides with me and datalogs on a laptop. It is showing no codes before we start but he immediately sees 4 coils dropping out. Tech tells me that he has seen this before where a coil will go into an open loop the feed back will make the ABS control module freak out. Changing the coils should fix it.

Get the car back with new coils 1-4. Asked why the didn't just do all 8 and was told that ford won't let them even though they know they should. Get 2 miles and the Check Advancetrac light is back on and I now have an intermittent shudder at very light to light throttle. Problems with the brakes are getting worse. Can't get it back to the dealer for almost two weeks because of them being booked and my schedule. I also pot holed my passenger rear rim. Tore the sidewall out of the Nitto and minorly flatspotted the rim.

Get it back to the dealer to find the two of the new coils and 1 of the stock ones had gone bad. Also found out that my extended warranty had expired a few days earlier. Regardless of them not comepletely fixing it on previous visits, I was now on my own.

The car gets a new set of Accell 1432 coils, K&N Typhoon intake, 4 new bosch 02 sensors, an oil change and the rear gear lubed, all synthetic.
Find alot of metal on the drain plug in the rear end. Not making any noise but it looks like she'll be getting a T-loc sooner than later. First off she feels STRONG. Much stronger than when I ran a 9.32 1/8th a couple of months ago. Breaks the tires loose from a stop much easier than before. She might be a legitimate 14.1 car on the 19's now. Second the trans now shifts much softer than before. In track tune i used to get rubber in 2 and 3 all the time. Now she doesn't even squeek in 2nd. Not saying that is neccessarily bad, just an observation. Trans is much better behaved. Car runs very smooth for a couple of days then.

I now have a very nasty intermittent vibration. Feels like coils. But it's not. Coils test perfect. Have constant abs problems. It also has an intermittent detonation problem. Usually at light to very light throttle or on initial tip in. Sometimes at full throttle also. Back to the dealer today. We take it for a half hour drive and he datalogs it. I was able to show him all of the issues. He comes up with almost nothing. The coils are perfect, injectors all test fine, all the sensors show good. We get a code for a bad Yaw sensor, but it was just replaced, a VIN number mismatch on the ABS control module and a BUS control failure on the ABS module. He wants to put a new one on but they are Big $$$. They are going to get back to me tomorrow. They are trying to get Ford to pay for it and were talking to District today to try to get it approved. Tech says he's never seen one act like mine before. Thinks it will fix the brake and Advancetrac issues but has no guarantee about the detonation or rough engine problems. Says he doesn't know what is going on at this point.

We'll see how it all works out. Anyone had any of these issues before?
 
Jeez, that's some crazy sh*t!!

If you have the time, I posted about a Lincoln meet not too far from you in Brooklyn - it's in the NorthEast Chapter forum. Welcome to the money pit called NYC!!
 
i've had problems with the advancetrac as well and after a while it went away (just the light). i never had a physical noticeable problem with the advancetrac, just the fact that it flashed on and off intermittently. they had told me it was my ABS module and brake booster. like i said, i never fixed it because they had quoted me at about 1500 and that's with me knowing the guy at Ford. off topic, w/ your magnaflows and resonator delete do you get a sound towards the end of a rev? i can't describe the sound but they keep telling me it might be due to the res delete. i'm just wondering if it's my car or it it's the combo of magnaflows and res delete. do you have stock pipes or did you upgrade those as well?
 
Not quite sure what you mean by "sound". Mine has the stock pipes with the resonators cut out and replaced with stainless and Magnaflow mufflers with 3" stainless tips. Looks better than stock but still has a factory appearance. Sounds great! Not loud at all and has a very deep, smooth, refined sound with a nice rip at full throttle. "Expensive" is a very good way to describe it. The intake is louder than the exhaust Combined they can be pretty magical sounding at times. I've owned a bunch of very cool street and race cars over the years and theexhaust note on my LS rates right up there with my favorites.

1969 GTX stroked 440 with ported six-pack heads, Victor intake, 850 double pumper, Wicked flat tappet cam, 2 5/8" Primary headers with 5" collectors into Walker Chambered Pipes exiting right in front of the rear tires. Combine that with a 4500 rpm stall, Trans brake and 4.56's and you've got a party! Raucous to say the least.

1987 Ford Mustang LX hatchback. Stock short block, mildly cleaned up stock heads with 1.94's, Cut, ported and welded, back to stock looking intake, 65mm TB, Crane cam, 77mm MAF, 1.7 roller rockers, BBk shorty 1 5/8" headers, Underdrive pulleys, No cats, X pipe, Two chamber flowmasters all 3", Built WC close ratio T5, 3.55's. Ran 12.8's on street tires. One of the best sounding mustangs I ever heard. Nothing sounds as sweet as an oversquare SBF at 6500 rpm. Totally different sound than a SBC. Fords are kind of like a baby big block. Part of the reason they make so much midrange torque.
 
I think he's talking about a "rasp" noise. I still have the resonators, and I don't have any rasp noise when you come off the gas.
 
I think he's talking about a "rasp" noise. I still have the resonators, and I don't have any rasp noise when you come off the gas.

yes thats the word. why would it be that his car doesn't have it? ill take a vid
 
advancetrac cuts spark so if your car is confused about abs and traction, that module could be the cause of the hesitation. purley a guess though. i'm curious to hear the results if they agree to replace the abs module.
 
zintkala, were you able to fit the coil covers back on with the 140032 coils? Has anyone tried the 14033 or 14034 coils to see if they would fit without modifications?
 

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