Hey guys,
This has nothing to do with Cougars or Thunderbirds, but I need some help with my brother's car.
It's a 1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi. It has the 3.5 V6 with 78k miles.
The car recently showed some very strange habits.
It has violent shakes while it is idling, especially when it's in gear and the brakes are held. The engine rocks back and forth in the bay.
While driving, it stumbles and shakes horribly, almost knocking itself into stalling. Depending on the position of the throttle, the shakes will vary in intensity.
Also, there is a strong smell of carbon or something while it's running. It smells like fireworks, anybody know what this is?
He had it serviced last week and this shop is notorious for screwing things up on our cars.
I'm thinking it's emissions or electronics related.
Any ideas???
Thanks!
Emissions may be the key. Plugged catalytic convertor(s) is my guess.
I'd have to agree with Ifixyawata. As far as the engine rocking back and forth in the bay, I would check my motor mounts too. Every other symptom points to a clogged convertor.
Thanks for the replies.
The thing is, it just started acting like this today.
He had the rack & pinion replaced last week and I thought they may have pinched a wire or forgot to reconnect something. But then again, why would it start acting like this one week later?
In any event, it isn't throwing any codes, so I didn't get any help there.
If the cats are plugged, will the exhaust get unusually hot while running?
Thanks again for the help.
Yeah, it should get hot, especially from the cat's forward. My friend had an old nissan beater truck that he used on the farm and it would run good till it got hot and then die. We found out what the problem was after he drove it back one day and the inside of the cat convertor is glowing red. Cutting it off solved the problem, but that is not a good solution in your case.
What about the MAP sensor? hose and connector?
What about the MAP sensor?
Engine shaking the hell out and trowing Blck Carbon smoke mean you have a bad Air-Fuel calculation....
There is a good chance the MAP sensor (Front of the intake Manifold) may be bad, defective, unplugged, broken vacum hose or maybe a broken wire there...
Also check your O2 sensor connection, wires
Yeah, plugged converters will get very hot.
As new as it is it probably don't have one. Although I have seen other cars that have had both a MAP and MAF. (and no it wasn't being used as a Barro sensor either)
I'd look for a misfire - bad plug, wire, coil pack, injector, etc. The timing could be off as well (the belt or chain may have jumped a tooth)
It should have a Map sensor most newer Mopars are speed density
thats definatly something to check, im not sure about the late model mopars, but the 2.2's would sometimes run like that if they skipped a tooth or 2
if it has something to do with the a/f mix, maybe the o2 sensors?
Thanks for all the help, fellas! I was able to eliminate some of the possible problems, but it's still running terrible.
I recently learned how terrible the cars are on the LH chassis (LHS, New Yorker, Intrepid, Concorde).
It's a beautiful car, but very unreliable.
We're just going to take it back to the shop and let them figure it out... after all, they were the last to have their hands on it.
Thanks again!