Cougar

Can someone tell me where the removable cap is so I can add more flasher fluid? Sorry.

My info showed only one coolant sensor for the car. It looked like the fan are controlled by the ECU. I didn't see any type of themoswitch that is normally in the radiator. Are you sure the other sensors you saw are for coolant temperature sensing? The info also shows a pressure sensor for the power steering. First time I have heard of that.

I think the code light should go out immediately if the sensor circuit is ok. You may have gotten another bad sensor. The crack you describe is a common problem with them I believe. You should be able to trick the circuit by replacing the sensor with about a 530k ohm, 1/2 watt resistor. One end of the resistor goes to the lead and the other goes to ground. If the code doesn't go away then there is something wrong with that circuit and you will need to check that wire lead coming from the ECU. A bad sensor will not cause the engine to have any starting trouble.

My info states it is under dash near the steering column.

Good info BitBasher! Thanks for the link.

I checked my service info and saw there is a yellow, common return wire, for the injectors that goes to pins 5 and 9 of the ECU. The other side of the injector coils are pins 13, 14, 15, and 16. I would check voltages at those pins with reference to the return wire. Since there are no codes that would cause the ECU to turn the injectors off then it would seem that if the injectors are cutting out, the problem would have to be inside the ECU itself.

If the injectors are turning off as you think they are then I would have to think the problem is with the ECU since the spark is working ok. Using a analog meter or a noid light to watch the pulses to the injectors should show the story. I don't know if there are external current limiting resistors for the injectors on this model or not. I don't think a bad coolant sensor will cause this trouble. It will run rich but it still should run.

OH, the horror. I can't look!

NorthWet, after reading through these posts it sounds to me that the injectors are not opening due to a electrical problem. Have you checked for voltage getting to the injectors while cranking the engine?

The problem may be due to the fuel pump. Your welcome for the help on this. If you do get another car hopefully it will be a better Soob.

Actually most circuits will have some sort of a open circuit voltage on the pins. When the sensor is connected the voltage should change since it is changing the circuit resistance when something is tied to the open circuit. The sensor changes resistance as the exhaust gases change and this makes the current that is flowing through the sensor change. Without really knowing how the internal circuit is designed it is hard to tell what is correct. One trick I use to help find trouble areas is to compare resistance readings of certain areas of the circuit I suspect trouble in. You need to have a good circuit to compare the readings with though.

Larry, I would do the same tests you did to make sure the circuit to the sensor is ok. It is clear that from your results that the wiring to the sensor is ok. It is hard to say what the open circuit voltage of the ECU is supposed to be normally since it will depend on how the circuit is designed. Measuring a good ECU like you want to do is the best way to find out that I can think of myself. Your test procedures to try and solve this trouble are very good I think. It seems to me that the replacement ECU must have the same trouble as the original. If you would like me to check out the spare unit for you let me know. If it is bad, I may be repair it for you. On units I have repaired before I have found that the output circuit device is damaged. If you can get another ECU for around $30 it wouldn't be worth the effort though due to shipping costs since I live in Alaska.

When I did my 180 I also was on a slight downhill grade.

Well, Heartless my assumption was wrong. You were thinking ahead.

The 12.1 volts you stated is a good voltage and is no problem. I think you are correct about the ECU being under the plate. It would be nice to know what codes are stored in the ECU. Most likely there is one for the MAF. Since this is a intermittent problem I would guess there may be just a connection problem to the MAF causing this trouble. Be sure the connections to it are clean and snug. Sometimes the sensor in the air passage way needs to cleaned also to stop problems like this.

Glad you are ok. I assume you didn't have winter tires on the car. If not, I would use this as good lesson. I did a 180 once in my Loyal on a four lane road. It was after the first snow and I didn't have my winter tires on. Forunately I didn't hit anything. The view looked a little strange being faced the wrong direction. The decisions we make before going on the road and unprepared can have some serious repercussions later on. It is so easy for us to just get in our cars and drive on without really thinking if we are truely ready for the conditions of the road. Please don't take the above statement to mean that I am picking on you. I am just trying to say that we all would be wise to take a minute before we head out and just ponder about what we take for granted as 'just another drive down the road'. I am including myself also as I know I just get up and go usually.

If it were me I would take the money that she can get for the car as is and add that to the 3 grand that would be spent on repairs to get another vehicle. Why spend that much on a car that may be worth only 2 grand at most? There are lots of good deals out there so finding one shouldn't be too hard.

I checked my info and it shows that the front O2 sensor has 6 pins and the rear sensor has 4 pins.

From reading your post about the blinker change the way I undersand it is you changed the front bulbs to a different type bulb that are in a different socket. If that is correct then you will need to put the original bulbs back in the circuit to make the flasher work as it normally does. The flasher is designed to work with the resistance of those particular bulbs.

The problem may be with the solenoid contacts but until you can prove that the solenoid is getting voltage from the small wire to it then the problem still may be with the inhibit switch. I wouldn't tear into the starter until that is checked or the unit is ready for a rebuild anyway.

To BGD73: I think you are having a little trouble in understanding how your meter works and understanding Ohm's Law. The resistance and power rating numbers that DaveT gave earlier make more sense to me. Placing a resistance of more than 2 ohms into the circuit will cause the motor to run too slow. Above, you stated that a piece of 12ga. wire is .1 ohms. This may be what your meter said but that is not correct. The real value is more like .001 ohms. This is why the wire didn't get hot. There is virtually no voltage drop across the wire to cause any heat. The copper wire isn't a resistor but a piece of nicrome wire is. In your post #54 you stated that you read .005 ohms using the 2m scale. If you mean the 2Megohm scale, you are using the wrong scale to measure a small resistance. You need to use the 200 ohm scale for that. 2 Megohms is 2 million ohms. That isn't a open circuit, but for power situations you can consider it to be one. I hope that helps clear up some things for you.

I don't think you have any other option with this delemma. The shafts may be different sizes.

Replacing the solenoids with about a 40 ohm, 5 watt resistor should make the ECU happy and turn off the error code. I would just make it a temporary fix if you do that. Until you can get a replacement part. Before doing anything I would make sure that the wire connections between the ECU and the solenoids is ok.

Here is a link to a picture of them. They should be near the throttle body. The air connections are very fragile. Do not put any side force on them. The dealer price for new ones is more than you may want to know so if you can find some used ones it would be great. Some folks have used the same type of parts from Nissons I think. You just need to swap the connector. http://users.adelphia.net/~davidtief/solenoid.html You can do a search here if you want more info on these things. The error codes are generated when the ECU doesn't see the correct current in the circuit to them.

I doubt that the unit has some RCA output connectors but you may be able to convert the output wire connections to RCA fairly easily.