- May 3, 2017
- 10
- 2
- 1
*First post on Stangnet*
Greetings! I come in peace from the bow-tie side of the aisle. Recently went looking for a quick and easy project that would go faster than my 30 year old Suburban, with at least slightly better gas mileage, and a craigslist ad for a cheap 1996 Mustang GT with standard transmission and a few unknown problems caused me to make the decision to add a blue oval to my GM family. After all, I'm no brand snob, and what kind of car guy can hate anything that's American, reasonably reliable, rear wheel drive, V8 powered, fast, and cool looking. (even if mine is apparently the "most hated" Mustang body style.)
But enough about me.
After buying the cheapest GT on craigslist, I proceeded to waste all the money I saved buying a cheap car on the basic stuff it needs to have a hope of running. She has new plugs, wires, intake manifold, fuel filter, fuel pump, battery, and little misc things. While all that stuff was bad, the heart of the problem, the reason the car won't run, still eludes me.
The car tries to start when I hit the key, sputters and dies almost immediately. Every once in a while it will run if I rev it up as soon as it catches. When it decides to die however, no pumping of the gas can stop it. ( thus not IAC valve) It seems to be a loss of spark, as a spark tester made from an old plug and wire only had visible spark during cranking while the car was sputtering, and nothing during the fruitless 75% of the time the engine was cranking. TPS shows consistent ohms across its rotation, crankshaft sensor was good, replaced it anyway because desperation. cam sensor is tested and good, alternator was probably good, but also replaced because apparently the diodes can fail and screw up the cam sensor signal, and for some reason she seems to run better with no belt (Although when it decides to run even briefly seems pretty random) Haven't formally tested the MAF, but that shouldn't affect spark much. Once it randomly decided to work, and when I got out to observe the engine running the worn out door fell shut, and the smarter-than-you anti theft whatevers decided to automatically lock the doors, and I had a hard time killing the engine. pulling the MAF plug didn't do a thing to slow her, and it only died after I pulled both coil's plugs out. I guess I at least have compression.
From everything I've read I can't seem to find anything that directly messes with spark besides crank sensor, coils, wires, and plugs, other than the PCM, or maybe the wiring. I've done all the googling I can do, so I figured it was time I went and found some Mustang guys. What do y'all think?
Greetings! I come in peace from the bow-tie side of the aisle. Recently went looking for a quick and easy project that would go faster than my 30 year old Suburban, with at least slightly better gas mileage, and a craigslist ad for a cheap 1996 Mustang GT with standard transmission and a few unknown problems caused me to make the decision to add a blue oval to my GM family. After all, I'm no brand snob, and what kind of car guy can hate anything that's American, reasonably reliable, rear wheel drive, V8 powered, fast, and cool looking. (even if mine is apparently the "most hated" Mustang body style.)
But enough about me.
After buying the cheapest GT on craigslist, I proceeded to waste all the money I saved buying a cheap car on the basic stuff it needs to have a hope of running. She has new plugs, wires, intake manifold, fuel filter, fuel pump, battery, and little misc things. While all that stuff was bad, the heart of the problem, the reason the car won't run, still eludes me.
The car tries to start when I hit the key, sputters and dies almost immediately. Every once in a while it will run if I rev it up as soon as it catches. When it decides to die however, no pumping of the gas can stop it. ( thus not IAC valve) It seems to be a loss of spark, as a spark tester made from an old plug and wire only had visible spark during cranking while the car was sputtering, and nothing during the fruitless 75% of the time the engine was cranking. TPS shows consistent ohms across its rotation, crankshaft sensor was good, replaced it anyway because desperation. cam sensor is tested and good, alternator was probably good, but also replaced because apparently the diodes can fail and screw up the cam sensor signal, and for some reason she seems to run better with no belt (Although when it decides to run even briefly seems pretty random) Haven't formally tested the MAF, but that shouldn't affect spark much. Once it randomly decided to work, and when I got out to observe the engine running the worn out door fell shut, and the smarter-than-you anti theft whatevers decided to automatically lock the doors, and I had a hard time killing the engine. pulling the MAF plug didn't do a thing to slow her, and it only died after I pulled both coil's plugs out. I guess I at least have compression.
From everything I've read I can't seem to find anything that directly messes with spark besides crank sensor, coils, wires, and plugs, other than the PCM, or maybe the wiring. I've done all the googling I can do, so I figured it was time I went and found some Mustang guys. What do y'all think?