Hello all,

My g/f's 2004 Ford Escape (3.0L V6 AWD 112,000mi) is acting up. After a full day of sitting, with the second half of it raining steadily, she was driving her Escape and it was acting funny (miss-firing, she said). The engine light came on and soon began blinking. She got to my house shortly after it started this. We left it and I drove for the day. Later that night, I drove it and it seemed fine. The engine light was on, but not flashing anymore.

The next day I took it my friend that was a Saturn mechanic and now working at a KIA dealership (same owner as the former Saturn and current Buick/GMC and Chevy Dealer). It ran fine for me. So he tries to scan it, his Mac Tools scanner won't read it. The KIA scanner wouldn't read it. I drove it the Ford dealer up the road. They said they couldn't get to it until after lunch and it would cost $110. I told them, I just want the codes read. They re-iterated, and I told them to pound salt and went to an independent shop where I know a guy. They read it right away for me. "Mis-fire on start-up" & "Cylinder 4 Mis-fire." were the two codes stored. He cleared them.

She got the tune up basics (plugs, wires, air filter, etc) and did the complete tune-up herself yesterday. (I was impressed). She put 94 in the tank and some fuel system cleaner in it as well. She said there's been no change and today I finally saw what it was doing. Sometimes during idling at a stop light, the RPMs will drop to almost zero, the lights dim but so far it has not stalled. It'll do this for several seconds, then correct itself and idle normally. Currently, the engine light has not come back on. She's thinking coil pack (each cylinder has a coil on these engines) on #4. She wants to switch it out with #1 and see if the problem follows. I think that might uncover the cause, or it could be the battery. It's the original, never been replaced and has a lot of miles on it, but it survived this past winter, without trouble. In my experience, most batteries crap out due to age in the fall when the cold snaps start.

Anyone have any insight on this. Something we're missing? Thanks, in advance for any help.

 

welcome to the site.did you or her replace the intake manifold gaskets? Mine did the same thing in the morning and humid weather changed the lower intake gaskets and found two bad vacuum lines that I replaced last year runs like a top now.164,000 miles!

 

That was my first thought, but she said they were fine when she did the tune-up. I'll take some break cleaner to the engine while it's running and see if it changes the idle.

 

UPDATE:

It's still acting up. It's fine under load, no problems at all. It's only while idling it will have issues. After idling fine for a moment, the idle drops and the engine begins hesitating. It gets to the point where the lights are dimming. So far it has not gotten to the point where it stalls. Then it corrects itself and idles fine for a while.

Since the last time I posted, she cleaned the throttle body and it had no effect.

I tried spraying brake parts cleaner around the intake gaskets to see if there is a vacuum leak. I don't think there is anything wrong there either. The idle did change, but only in the way described above and it does that with, or without anything sprayed. The change didn't seem to be caused by the brake clean.

The engine light came on and gave us these codes:
P0113 - Intake Air Temperature Circuit High Input
P0102 - Mass Air Flow (MAF) Circuit Low Input
P2195 - Oxygen (A/F) Sensor Signal Stuck Lean (Bank 1 Sensor 1)
P2197 - Oxygen (A/F) Sensor Signal Stuck Lean (Bank 2 Sensor 1)

No more mis-fire codes. She thinks the O2 sensors are the culprit and we tried changing them, but so far changed only one. And it seems there is 4 on this vehicle. After changing one, we realized that the one was changed was Bank 1 Sensor 2. We located Bank 2 Sensor 1, but still can't find Bank 1 Sensor 1. Does anyone know if these are possible to get at by DIY tinkerers? The B2S1 sensor looks hard to get at, but not impossible.

The two Air sensor codes are a mystery to me. I would guess that maybe she didn't hook them up properly when she put the engine back together after the tune-up, but we plugged in a scanner with Live Data and they were sending signals. The IAT even changed when we opened the hood, so it appears to be working. Maybe there's something blocking the intake air? Like I said, it does run fine under load while it's moving. She did replace the air filter. I'll look at that again. But it was doing this before and didn't throw those codes.

Right now, we're just at a loss and not sure what to do next. I don't think throwing parts at it is going to help at this point.

 

Question, are you sure that she changed both the upper and lower gaskets on the intake manifold? The uppers looked fine when I did mine, but the lowers were in terrible shape, and that's where it was leaking air into the intake system on my Escape.

Also, let her know not to ever put 94 octane gas in the Escape again. I think we get the impression that high octane "Premium" fuel has some special thing in it that makes it better than regular. I guess that's what the oil companies would like us all to believe. Higher octane gas is just harder to ignite, that's it, nothing else. When I had a 1970 442 it needed high octane because it had high compression (but not much more and even less compression than some of today's cars) and didn't have the anti knock sensor and other sensors, and on board computer to control timing and fuel. It was just a big 455cid brute of an engine. With modern cars even cars that are "supposed" to have high octane can do without with just a small drop in horsepower because of the anti knock sensor. But putting in high octane fuel in our Escapes does nothing good, and could possibility damage the engine, (although probably remote unless you ran it all the time). So just make sure she knows not to run that stuff any more, just a waste of hard earned $$$.

By the way a Gal that can work on her own car......Way cool!!!


Scott

 

She didn't change any intake gaskets. She said she looked at them and they looked fine, which was not totally settling to me.

And she won't be putting 94 in anything, unless it's a forced induction, or very high compression engine.

I know, it is way cool. When she did the O2 sensors it was raining, so she brought it to my house cause I have a garage. All I had to do was jack it up, and identify the O2 sensors (turns out I identified the ones that were not throwing codes ).

 

also check the pcv elbow they are real brittle rubber could have gave out its under the plastic cover would give a lean code if its sucken air in stead of engine blow by

 

Uzzy,
Did you ever find the solution to the problem? I have an '01 Escape acting almost the same way. I hope not to go through all that as well.

Duane

 

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure the solution was broken vacuum lines. You can spray a little brake cleaner around them, while it's running to find bad spots. The idle changes when you spray a broken section.

 

Thanks. I hope it turns out that simple. Not wanting to spend a lot on this .

 

Idling problems are typically the IACV (idle air control valve). The IAC gets clogged w carbon & gunk.
On the Escape V6 it's easy to clean or replace. Cleaning is usually a temporary fix.
Replace it w a genuine OEM Motorcraft part. Aftermarket IACs are known to be bad straight out of the box.

I cleaned the rotary IAC valve on our Honda Element a few months back.
It's of a different design than the Escape's & seems more suitable for cleaning than the Ford solenoid type.

 

Turned out to be a vacuum line on top. When the engine was cold the line felt tough and hard. as it warmed up the inside would soften and collapse.








I hope this helps the next Guy or Girl with the headache !!

Thank to all for sending me in the right direction.
time to sit back and enjoy my success!