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Hey guys I’ve been trying to figure out why this car is having really poor idle issues. It seems to be coming from an intake problem more than likely. I know there’s a sensor known as the engine coolant temperature sensor next to the valves but it’s definitely coming from an intake problem I feel. You see there’s this hose I have not hooked onto anything and the reason being is as soon as I connect the hose the cars idling problem gets really bad and the car even dies. I included pics hopefully you can see what hose I’m talking about. When I connect it to that sensor the car will die out. I’ve sprayed cleaner into where the throttle body part is and it seems to have helped a little because it didn’t die when I turned it on but that was a few days ago. Now it does die again when I connect it to the sensor. Is this sensor suppose to push air? Because it doesn’t seems to have any push or pull to it. I know there’s a sensor under the intake manifold but the check engine light isn’t even on so I don’t get any codes or readings on what this damn issue could be. Im the new guy in the mechanic world but my father has taught me a lot on his 64 ford f 100. We have our own shop so I’m learning a lot. I even changed the timing belt on this bad boy and I was able to put the engine at the correct timing. Not a big feet to some but I feel proud of myself since I’ve never done that before in my life. Just trying to paint a picture of how much of a rookie I am at trying to learn lol. But honestly this is stumped me. I know there’s a sensor under the intake manifold for the egr I have a lift so I can most definitely probably reach it from the bottom but I don’t believe I’m gonna fit in there very well lol but if that’s the issue then on the lift it goes and I’ll change it. But if it’s not that and if it’s not broken why fix it right? I blew some high pressure air into the sensor the hose goes onto to see if maybe it was gunked up. Would that break it or no? Hope this post goes up this time phone is acting up and sorry if this post gets repeated.
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looks like i wont be able to pos picutres at all for some reason so i know thats gonna make it a little harder :huh:
Decided to have a look see at the car again. The engine was cold coolant was cold and everything was working great. The car seemed to have fixed itself. But when the car got hot the problems started coming little by little I realized that the engine coolant temperature sensor had to be the problem now. Because when it was cold I was able to connect everything up and the car was great working good as new but when the engine got hot the problems started coming I tried to disconnect the sensor harness and the problem got to a point the car wanted to die hooked it back up and the car tried to maintain itself but struggled I disconnected the hoses again and the car stabilized sort of. Still struggling but it was better I think the sensor could be the problem. What do you guys think?
When a car warms up the computer goes from open loop to closed loop and adjusts the fuel mixture using the oxygen sensors. That usually means it reduces fuel concentration compared with a cold start condition. By disconnecting a vacuum hose you create a vacuum leak that increases idle speed. since this seems to work I think you should check the idle air control valve, and throttle position sensor.
The coolant temp sensor won’t keep the car from idling, only from starting while hot, and make the fuel mixture too rich. You can often check sensor resistance to test it.
A few more questions:.
Does the car run ok if you keep your foot on the gas pedal? Or does it have issues while driving when hot? If so, does the exhaust smell like unburnt gasoline?Hmmm yea I see what you’re saying. I took another look see this morning and it’s pretty chilly out(it’s almost June mother nature :angry: ) so air is denser in oxygen right now. The car was running pretty good I can’t drive the car because it doesn’t have tags and it’s at our shop and too many public roads wth police everywhere. But I gave the car some revs and it was working fairly well. Was able to stay on longer than usual so that’s great. Lasted longer before the failing happens. I took a look at the coolant. It’s more clear than green. Pretty sure that not right. Could be low but that’s beside the point. The car was running good. Took longer to heat up too because it’s chilly here. Yesterday it was warm and heated up faster. I see what you’re saying about the air systems. while I was reving it, it was actually doing pretty good. No issues at all. fought like a champ. But when the engine got hot it started happening again where little by little it starts to fail. I’m reading online because in adamant it could be this sensor and my reasoning is because it’s actually very common and my symptoms are very similar to this. Some are saying my car is starved or air another says its starved of fuel. To be I believe it could be starved of air because when I remove the small hose that’s over top of the intake hose it allows the car to stay alive. The car seems to not be burning some gas. It’s burning okay but there’s a hint of fuel not burning. Could be more than I’m saying but it seems to be only a little bit. Sorry fng in the mechanic world but I do have experience and understanding.
If you want to test the engine coolant temp sensor, here is a chart to compare it’s resistance to. Unplug it to test. Should be a two pin connector. One side gets power, the other side sends a reduced voltage to the computer based on how much resistance the sensor reads. If the sensor is shorted, or way low on resistance when hot, it might be making the computer think the engine is always cold, and giving it more fuel.
[quote=”Notnotjose” post=166126]Decided to have a look see at the car again. The engine was cold coolant was cold and everything was working great. The car seemed to have fixed itself. But when the car got hot the problems started coming little by little I realized that the engine coolant temperature sensor had to be the problem now. Because when it was cold I was able to connect everything up and the car was great working good as new but when the engine got hot the problems started coming I tried to disconnect the sensor harness and the problem got to a point the car wanted to die hooked it back up and the car tried to maintain itself but struggled I disconnected the hoses again and the car stabilized sort of. Still struggling but it was better I think the sensor could be the problem. What do you guys think?[/quote]
If you unplugged the ect sensor and it started running worse then chances are that sensor is working. You need to see what the o2 sensors are seeing once it goes into closed loop.
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