Cougar

Have fun with the trouble shooting. I suspect the injectors will be ok since you are getting fuel. Just way too much of it. I would be sure to look at the fuel pressure after the regulator to see if that is abnormally high. Too much pressure would equal too much fuel delivered into the cylinders.

The power to the pump may not be working. To check this try starting the engine breifly to and then turn the key to off. Then turn the key to 'on' and listen for a slight hum from the pump as it charges the line briefly. If you don't hear the hum then you most likely are not getting voltage to the pump. It may be due to a bad fuel pump relay. Other ignition signal problems can cause this to happen also.

Check to see if the relay is shorted. If you have a test light, it would be good to see if something is causing the relay coil to be energized and close the relay, so see if there is voltage on the coil lead. I don't think the coil circuit requires a closer to ground to make it work, but it may. I have a manual for a '88 so I could check that. I assume the blower is ok in the heat mode, is that correct? If so, then the problem seems it would have to do with the AC circuit somehow but I would have to research that to see what could cause that.

Welcome to the site Micheal. There is lots of good info available here. You probably won't be needing any trouble shooting help for some time though. Enjoy the new ride.

I think these tanks have two sensors in them and it may be that one of them is not working correctly. I know from previous posters that these sensors are prone to have broken or dirty contacts. I think if one sensor is not giving the right resistance it may cause this kind of thing to happen. Just out of curiosity, do you know how much fuel the tank holds? Going by your miles shown and assuming you average 23 MPG that would make the tank capacity around 11 gallons and I'm pretty sure you would have at least a 15 gallon tank.

OK on the codes. It seems though there should be some stored codes from when the CEL light came on. Though the condition may be clear now. One place to start checking on this problem is to see if there is a problem with the fuel pressure regulator. Since you are getting excessive fuel to the engine, the regulator may have failed somehow and is letting too much pressure get to the injectors and thus flooding the engine. I'm sure the blue smoke you are seeing, and the black plugs are due to the fuel rich condition.

I assume you have a manual transmission in this car. If you have a automatic try starting the car in the neutral position to see if the starter will work then. If you get results there then check the neutral safety switch for a problem. It seems you either have a problem with the ignition switch area or the solenoid in the starter is bad. I would get a test light and check the small lead connection to the solenoid on the starter. Hook up the test light with the cliplead to ground and the probe end to the small connection on the starter solenoid. When you turn the key to the start position the light should turn on. If it does, that means the ignition line area is ok and the problem is in the starter solenoid. Replacing the starter may be the easiest solution if that is the case. If the light does not turn on then you need to check the ignition switch or wiring to the starter for a connection problem.

If you are saying in your last post that all those codes are showing a recorded fault then I would have to presume that there is something wrong with the ECU unit. If that is the case you may be able to fix things up by removing the battery ground connection for about ten minutes to reset the ECU. After you reconnect the battery lead there may be a proceedure you need to do after you start the car up. I think you are not supposed to touch the gas pedal for around 15 minutes as the car warms up and does some checks. Hopefully the owners manual will say something on that.

Lisa, From the things that you stated it seems to me there still may be a wiring connection problem to the MAF sensor. After the shop worked on the connections the car ran ok for awhile. I would check to make sure the wiring between the sensor and the ECU were definetly good before changing the ECU out. Checking the resistance of the wire connections out between the two modules would be my first check. Monitoring the voltage from the MAF at the input to the ECU will tell you if it is really correct also. If the signal voltage is low there then you know that there is still a wiring problem. Since you have changed the MAF twice that can be ruled out as a possible problem. Checking the voltage input to the MAF would be good to do also. Having a low input may cause a low output to the ECU. I think that would cause another code to be sent to the ECU possibly, but I'm not sure on that.

From your description it seems your engine has multipoint injection, is that correct? If you do have MPFI I can't see all four injectors leaking at once so I would have to check the fuel control system. I wouldn't bother changing the oil until you have the fuel problem fixed as you will just contaminate the oil again. It sounds like the injector(s?) are being forced on more than they should be. I suppose they could be clogged with some debris that got through the fuel filter but that doesn't seem likely.

It sure does. If the coil body is not grounded it will break the coil circuit connection so there won't be any current flow to generate the high voltage.

I would start checking for power to the fan while the problem is happening. Use a test light or voltmeter to check for power.

I can't guarantee this will fix your problem but it did on another car I worked on. I suspect it will do the trick though. You may be able to just clean the valve also with some cleaner.

Try changing the PCV valve to fix this problem.

60 dollars? WOW! Before going out and purchasing a new one I would try verifing that really is the problem. First, is this relay really in the cicruit you are having trouble with? You should be able to pull the relay out of the socket and see if that totally kills the latch operation. Second, you may be able to swap it with another relay from under the dash of the same kind. Try to find another like it. Lastly, you might want to try getting a used one from a salvage yard for a lot less.

I think the black one ties between the alternator and the battery if I remember correctly. I will be home in a few days and check my manual on this.

See if there is a common connection to the electric plungers for all the lock levers. Whatever it is, the manual will hopefully tell you where to locate it. I would assume it is near or under the dash but I can't say for sure.

I have not worked on this before but I would assume there is a relay that supplies power to the latches. If there is, would try replacing that first.

It would be easier to check for power at the blower motor connection first. Hopefully getting to the motor connector is fairly simple. This will tell you if the motor is really getting power or not. If you have some lamp cord handy you could rig up a jumper cord to just apply power to the motor to check it. Checking for voltage is easier though I think.

If you have a voltmeter or a test light you should check to see if voltage is getting to the motor while the speed control is set to high and the key set to accessories or ignition on. If you have voltage then you need to fix or replace the motor. If you don't have voltage then check the wiring and the speed control switch for a problem.

To see if you have 12 volts at the exciter connection to the alternator check the voltage there with a voltmeter. If you have 12 volts there and that is the only other connection besides the main output lead then you have a bad alternator. As far as the regulators job goes, it provides the proper level of voltage to the exciter to make sure the battery voltage level stays at a proper charge. As current draw of the battery changes with various loads placed on it, the regulators job is to make sure that the alternator supplies the proper current to match the load demands. This way the battery stays charged up all the time no matter what load demands are placed on the battery, to a limit of the alternator's output anyways.

I think most of these problems are caused either by wiring problems to the sensor(s) or the sensor itself is in need of repair or replacement. Cleaning the sensor's sliding contacts sometimes works in fixing these.

I went back through some of your posts to see what model Soob you have and it looks like we are talking about a '95 Legacy with a 2.2 liter engine, correct? I have to nix the bad fuel pump idea because your problem is related to cylinders 1 and 3 only. A bad pump would effect all of them. The next best step to do I believe is to check your angle sensor for the camshaft. I think you may be getting bad pulses for #'s 1 & 3. Checking the waveforms with a 0-scope while the problem is occuring will show the problem up if there is one. One other thing you could do if you have this type of setup (I don't think you do) is, if there are seperate coils for each side of the engine ignition, is swap them. If I remember right though there is only one.

Good going. Thanks for the feedback.

Since you were given the location of the gauge sensor here is some proper sensor resistances you should get with your ohmmeter with the sensor lead removed. The ohmmeter leads tie to the contact of the sensor where the lead was removed and ground. I think you are aware of this but I say this just to make sure we are both thinking the same. At 122 deg. F the sensor resistance should be around 154 ohms. At 248 deg. F the sensor resistance should be around 16 ohms. I would guess that at normal running temps the resistance would be about 40 to 50 ohms. If your first post stated the resistance is only 2 ohms then this really is bad but you need to remove the sensor lead before taking a reading so the reading is accurate.