FYI: problem fixed- I hope!

[Boosted92LX]

Ok, so my fox has been acting funny for a few weeks now and throwing a CEL. I HOPE I'm not speaking too soon, but I think I fixed the problem and thought I'd share so maybe it could benefit someone else.

For a while now the car has been dying when I stop at stop signs, throwing a check engine light that comes and goes and the other day I pulled it out to go for a ride and the engine would cut out for a split second-just fall on it's butt and then bounce right back like nothing happened. It did it about ten times in ten miles. I noticed when it happened, the tach would smack the bottom at 0 then bounce back to 3500 (or whatever rpm It happened at) immediately, like a loss of power thing.

I had pulled the code a while back and it was #19- no power to processor. this made no sense to me. I thought geez, that's stupid, how would it run if it had no power to processor? A voltage drop never occured to me.

Yesterday at work I was talking with a friend that had a fox and sold it. he said it had died and refused to start, but the guy he sold it to fixed it in 15 minutes. Bad ignition switch. The guy said these cars are notorious for bad ignition switches and drove techs crazy with intermittent problems.

So, It all made sense then. I swapped it out last night and no more dying, CEL, or cutting out. LOL. Stupid switch.

Hope this Helps somebody!

 

[Noobz347]

Ya gotta love those gremlins:

View attachment 180818

They can hide virtually ANYWHERE! This one was found in my vacuum system. I had to install a tiny restriction valve (too small for other gremlins to get through), to ensure his buddies couldn't make their way to the same spot.

Got my fingers crossed that you found the one responsible for your issue.

 

[Boosted92LX]

Thanks, man!

 

[betke76]

I remember years ago alot of foxes coming in the dealership for replacing ignition switches under a recall, I replaced a bunch. it is a common problem. you should be good to go

 

[Boosted92LX]

Wulp, looks like I spoke too soon.

Drove it to town today, and it hiccuped one time, and threw a light. Came home, pulled codes, and once again, #19. No power to processor.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm out.

I'm just hoping it's not a loose wire that I'll never be able to track down.

Maybe I should go post in tech....

 

[betke76]

hmm, check the connection of the the ground wire at the back of the intake comes out of harness and attaches to the firewall, its a pcm ground i think. its a single wire orange in color.

 

[94stangfan]

However weird it sounds, also check out your battery cables really well. That one was causing me some problems a while ago. I put new ones on and haven't been disappointed since.

 

[Boosted92LX]

Thanks fellas. I'm going to get into it tonight, I think. I'll check those!

 

[betke76]

hope it works out for ya