Hi, we've got a 2000 taurus se that has been struggling intermittently. When it happens (seemingly out of nowhere), the car idles rough and seems to be struggling just to stay running. When you step on the gas, it seems to struggle very hard to accelerate, and makes a whiney noise. Also, this last time it acted up, the engine light started flashing. We haven't had too many problems under the hood with this car, though it does have close to 170,000 miles on it. Any idea what might be causing this? I've changed the fuel filter, put injector cleaner in the gas, changed the air filter...the problem keeps returning. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
Jeff

 

Hello and good day:

A Flashing CEL (check engine light) indicate that there is a MissFire....This could be a number of problems...from a Bad Spark Plug, Spark Plug Wire, to a Bad Coil Pack....I have found that 70 to 80% of this is a Bad Coil Pack.

This sounds Electrical in nature.....Have you had the OBDII codes read???

Good luck with this and keep us advise.....6

 

Which engine you you have? The DOHC's are prone to the boots on the COP's failing and allowing water to enter the plug area and thus causing rust to accumulate on the plug and coil spring and water to set in the plug area. This in turn causes mis-fires. Like Sterling_Six says, have the codes pulled.

 

Thanks for the advice, I was starting to suspect something electrical as well. The engine light has since turned itself off, so next time it comes on, I'll go have the codes read. In the meantime, how do you diagnose a coil pack (is this the same thing as an ignition coil?)? I'll try to look at the spark plugs too for any rust...

 

Hello:

I know the following is not very PC (lol)...but in a PINCH...you can do the Following:

Pull the end of a spark plug wire off the spark plug (leave it attached at the coil pack). Use a "safety" screwdriver, one with a rubber or plastic handle cover. DO NOT TOUCH THE METAL PART OF THE SCREWDRIVER!! Put the screwdriver in the unattached end of the plug wire, and hold the rest of the screwdriver near a metal surface. Have a friend crank the engine over and see if sparks jump from the screwdriver and the metal it's close to. Yellow sparks may mean a weak coil pack, or a bad plug wire. Blue sparks should mean everything is ok... I'ts a little risky (getting shocked), but as long as you don't touch the metal part of the screwdriver, you should be fine.[/align][/align]But...the Normal Procedure is to GET this to the Ford Dealer...and Have them do a full diagnose on the Coil Pack it'self...[/align][/align]Good luck.....6[/align]

OMG I forgot something very important....THIS WILL DEPEND ON THE MAKE OF ENGINE you have....If you have a duratech engine..DOHC 12 or 24 valve the Coil Packs are on each Spark Plug....Sorry

 

Still need to know which engine you have. Either the Vulcan 3.0 OHV (12 valved)engine or the Duratec OHC (24 valved) engine. They are different animals. The Vulcan uses a single coil pack and the Duratec has individual coils on each plug.

You can still get the code(s) pulled as they will be stored even though your CEL may be off or not blinking.

If the code(s) show a misfire, it will tell you which cylinder. When standing in front of the vehicle, the cylinders are numbered as follows. Back three are cylinders 1-3 from left to right and the front cylinders are 4-6 left to right.