[ragtop88]

Really trying to help out a friend at work who doesn't need to dump all her cash on trying to solve the problem (poor college student). Car is an '86 Taurus with 3.0L/auto combo. Anyways, the car has a very erratic idle and stalls out sometimes when coming to a stop. She also complains that when she "floors it" it will barely go, I haven't been able to witness this one myself. I figured it would be the IAC but pulled it off and it looked fine, used some carb cleaner anyways to make sure. WHen you unplug it while the car is running, it'll stall out for sure so I'm thinking its working.....whether its working right I don't know. My neighbor is supposed to be borrowing a snap-on scanner from work so I hope to see whats going on. No codes have been set. Looking for some ideas before taking the replace many working parts in an attempt to find the non-working one. Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[Bob Gervais]

Vacuum leak? How's the plugs and all that stuff?

Welcome to the TCCA, also. I'm sure we can help you get the car running smoothly again!

 

[OAKLEY2000SEL]

Have you checked the coil pack? Maybe it's running on 5 cylinders?

 

[ragtop88]

Thanks for the start. SHe had said it had a recent tune-up but I'm not sure exactly what that entailed. I'll need to double check to see if it coincided with the beginning of the rough running. I tried spraying starter fluid around to see if it was a vacuum leak but no avail. Is there a link around with an online set of directions for checking the coil pack? I don't think I even noticed a coil pack in there when I was looking around. Is this a waste spark system?

Should also mention that I tried to pull the codes using a testlight and the procedure outlined in the oh so wonderful Haynes manual she had. I "think" it tried to flash me a code for the MAP sensor out of range, but I could never be sure what it was trying to flash so I'm not sure how solid this is....and again the check engine light isn't on or anything. I'm more familiar with GM stuff but I'm guessing this would be similar?? Thanks again guys.

 

[gtx2000]

try turning the steering wheel to full clock and see if it stalls if it does it could be the steering sensor

 

[Bob Gervais]

Originally posted by OAKLEY2000SEL@Jan 14 2004, 10:24 PM
Have you checked the coil pack? Maybe it's running on 5 cylinders?

It doesn't have a coil pack. It has a distirbutor/ignintion module etc.

I find when reading the codes, an analog voltmeter works better than the light. Not sure why, I've just had better luck with that.

 

[ragtop88]

OK here we go. First, thanks for confirming I'm not that crazy. I was pretty sure I had seen a dizzy in it when I was poking around but wasn't sure how the coil arrangement was to state that for sure. Finally got the scanner on it today and this is what it said.

In KOEO mode it flashed me the code 22 MAP sensor out of whack.

In KOER mode it said code 10 snap throttle, which I think it meant it wanted me to blip the throttle, which we did. It then gave me 2 codes.

12-Can't control RPM during high RPM check
16-RPM too low to perform O2S test

THisis all with a Snap On scanner

Is it likely that the MAP sensor is toast? Or is it liklely that code was set and is just saved? There is no check engine light on.

SHe further told me that the rough running was before the tune up and that didn't fix it. On top of that the car has gotten worse with the unable to accelerate problem, which is intermittant. THe car definitely surges at idle pretty badly. Guess thats it, any more help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom