Hello, it's me again, the guy who was asking about the differences between the Turbo Coupe and the 5.0L Tbirds. Right now I am finding myself increasing angry at an issue occuring with my 3.8L 87 Thunderbird. Here is the Problem:
(This only started happening about 1 week ago)
A week ago while driving around town everything was going great. Car was running fine and I was on top of the world. I stopped at an unusual gas station to fill up that I normally would never go to, but it had what I needed so I filled up there. Anyway, I was driving to various places for about 2 hours. On my way back home while driving on a busy thoroughfare, with the air conditioning on, I stopped at a traffic light. When I did the car made a sputtering noise like it was out of gas, the engine shook briefly and then shutoff. I attempted to restart the engine at least five times. Everytime it either turned on for a split second, sputtered again and shut off, or it kept turning over but never started. Everytime I thought I had it started, I gave it plenty of gas (floored it) but even with the reving, the engine simply sputtered and turned off again. I had to push the car out of traffic and sat for about 1 hour waiting for help to arrive. When my buddy arrived to get me, I attempted to start the car. Bingo! It turned on and ran fine. I was able to drive it home.
After this I assumed I had simply gotten some bad gas. I vowed never to get gasoline from that mom n' pop station ever again. Well, today I was driving around and it happened again! I was heading home after about an hour of driving when in the middle of the road (Not even stopped this time) I felt the engine sputter. I was hesitant to let out of the gas for fear of the engine dying all together in the middle of the road. I quickly dashed to the nearest turning lane which led into a neighborhood road. As soon as I pulled into the turning lane and let out of the gas, the engine died. (And there were angry people behind me as well, which is always nice) I attempted to restart the engine about 7 different times. Each time I could keep it running for maybe 2-4 seconds but then it would sputter again like it was out of gas. (I had plenty of course). Finally I was able to get the engine going and quickly put it into drive. I had to floor the thing just to get it to sputter across the road onto the neighborhood street. Once on that road, it quickly died out again. Again, after about 30 minutes or so, the started right back up like nothing happened, and I was able to make it home.
What does this mean? It's certainly not the bad gas again. The engine wasn't overheating before hand. My fluids are fine. What could be causing this?
Fuel Filter, fuel pump....
Almost sounds like you are hydro locking the fuel system.
Sounds like the fuel pump is on the fritz...
Tfi?
Yes it is. It isn't EFI, nor Carberator. Could it use some cleaner?
Did you run it completely out of gas recently?
Check The Thick Film Ignition, or TFI. This part can cause enormous problems. I had my cougar 4 months on blocks only for this F#$%&$g part.....
Some of the guys can explain that procedure...
(http://teaca.iespana.es/almacen/Cougar.jpg)
Sounds like your TFI module. It's the little box on your distributor with the wires runnin to it. Other board members here have had the symptoms you describe . When mine went ( 4 of them in 10 years in 3 different cars ) it was always while moving, the car would instanly stop running and not start again until the TFI was replaced.
Is his TFI on the distributer or on the core support like my 88 3.8?
The thing about my problem is, when car dies out while running, I usually can wait about 40 minutes or so and then the car will start right back up and run normally. Although I must say that since this has started happening I have been noticing what sounds like an engine miss. Another thing is that just this morning while attempted to head out to work, while heading down my street the car did it again, sputtered and stopped. Luckily I was able to restart it and reverse the thing back into a parking spot.
Could It just need a tune up? I don't think it's that TFI thing because it does eventually start up again after waiting a while.
Trust us, a flaky TFI can and will cause this type of problem. The symptoms line up almost perfectly. Start by changing this one part out, then if you are still having the same problem we can help you trouble shoot farther. Bottom line is, it's most likely gonna be the TFI ;) .
Yes, I've had a GT stang do this, it will try to start and then shut right back off. Sometimes you have to wait a while for it to start back, because the ignition box cools off. You might try ice on the ignition module when it won't start, but the only test is to buy a new module. If the problem doesn't go away then you have a spare module, which you will need one day BTW.
You can have a lot of tricky problems with the TFI. My car stopped when running at 80km/h, stopped at stop, stopped when charging fuel, etc......and required 4 o 5 tries to run again, even 20 minutes...
(http://teaca.iespana.es/almacen/Cougar.jpg)
I thought that you could get it tested at auto zone? Just find a buddywith another cougar,....or tbird and see if theirs works.
Electronic parts don't like heat. Ford put the TFI module on the side of the distributor. :disappoin
Go to Google and search for
Ford TFI heat and you'll see what we mean. :D
Once again I'm saying his is probably mounted on the core support. Not sure about the 87 3.8 but the 88's are.
My car has the TFI mounted to a heat sink mounted to the core support. and yes autozone can test it. But make sure they run the test like 10 times or more untill it is so hot you can't hold it.
From the factory? Any chance it was retro-fitted by a previous owner?
Even Autozone thinks it's still on the distributor...
On your
1987 FORD THUNDERBIRD, the CONTROL MODULE is:
UNDER HOOD, CENTER, FRONT ENGINE AREA, MOUNTED ON
DISTRIBUTOROn your
1988 FORD THUNDERBIRD, the CONTROL MODULE is:
UNDER HOOD, CENTER, UPPER ENGINE AREA,
TOP FRONT OF ENGINE, MOUNTED ON SIDE OF
DISTRIBUTOROn your
1989 FORD THUNDERBIRD, the CONTROL MODULE is:
UNDER HOOD, PASSENGER SIDE, FRONT ENGINE AREA,
FRONT OF RADIATOR, DRIVER SIDE OF HEADLIGHT HOUSING,
MOUNTED IN
FINNED CONTROL MODULE HOLDERMaybe Ford started putting them there part way through 88, and continued on with everything from 89 on?
master blaster yest the 88's have them on the radiator place thingy. (http://www.coolcats.net/tech/troubleshooting/images/tfi2.jpg) Courtusey of coolcats.net http://www.coolcats.net/tech/troubleshooting/tfi.html Also this is only on the v-6 cars I do belive
My 84 did the same thing. I had worse problems though. Internal pump didnt work, 1 inch of sludge/rotten gas in the bottom of the fuel tank.
I have an unrelated question but since this thread is already up, I might as well use it. I recently went to a local Pick-A-Part Junkyard and got myself a Turbo Coupe Instrument Cluster Panel. After reading through the wiring schematics located in my Chilton Car Care book, and working for 6 hours, I was able to get the Standard Panel out and put the buttstuffog one in. However there are some things bothering me....
Number one, 2 out of the 4 times I started the car, I saw several puffs of smoke and could smell a Burn coming from behind the panel. I could only assume that the Power Coil got so hot that it was burning off some left over grease and dirt that was on the back of the panel. But, not to take any chances, I have decided to drive to and from work tomorrow without the Dash Panel on, just in case I need to remove the Instrument Cluster on the fly.
Other than that, all the gauges worked (To my pleasant surprise), except for the Oil Pressure gauge and obviously the Tachometer. What I would like to know is how to get the Oil Gauge working and what I would need to do to get the tach up and running. Is it possible to calibrate it myself?
Yhe TFI thingie on the distributor is heat sensitive !
When it cools down, sometimes just a little, the problem will go away. If I'm not mistaken, this was resolved at one time with a class action law suit sgainst Ford.
Oh, I've had the same problem too.
Pull one at a junkyard for a couple of bucks and see if it goes away.
Then buy a new one, I think the newer manufacturing process fixed this problem.
I got myself a New TFI Chip, the car hasn't died out since I put it in, but for whatever reason, it is running a lot rougher that it ever used to while idleing. I don't know how, but it seems that something happened to the engine when all of that dying out was occuring, and now it doesn't run the same. The only thing I can think about doing now is changing out all the plugs, but that's pretty much it. I still don't understand why it's running so rough now. Its like the car was running smooth and normal, then that one day It died out happened, and it starts running really rough while idleing. Even after I change out the TFI module.
I have another problem which I have had since getting the car about 4 months ago. That is a knocking noise. After tighening up loose headlights, and fixing up a loose ler (Which I thought was the culprit), the knocking in the front is still there. I honestly don't know what is causing it. I mean, other than somehow climbing under the car while driving, I just don't know where it's coming from. Is it suspension? (It only happens when hitting a bump or going down a sharp Dip in the road) Is this common?
The sound just may be sway bar end links. Very common, cheap and easy to replace.
Ok, here's a good one. How in gods name am I supposed to change out the right (Passenger) side spark plugs? I was able to get the left sides out in about 5 minutes, but have no clue on how to get to the others. I swear the engineers who make these cars never think about working on them.....
I know taking it somewhere is going to cost a fortune, but there are so many hoses and other environmental items blocking my way, I can hardly even see the plugs, let alone work on them. all that emissions ! To boot, there seems to be less space on that side of the engine as well. The about this whole thing is that you know well the car was setup in way which you are forced to take it to the dealer to fix certain things. Even with 3 out of the 6 plugs changed, I can notice a HUGE difference in performance. If only I could get to the other 3.
It can't be that difficult. I changed all 6 of mine in my 88 cougar in about 10 min. Ofcourse I had a GM flex handle ratchet with a wobble extention. That maybe all the difference. If you really want a challange change the tranny filter without droping the exhust