[ZTWsquared]

(05-24-2011, 01:54 PM)blackbirdphoto Wrote: Well day 2 into driving her around and guess what... Two problems!
1) this is the one that concerns me the most: when I'm holding a steady speed, doesn't matter if it's 60kph or 120kph, it feels like (and sounds like) the engine is studdering. At first I though it was the wind, but nope, that was the engine. Idles fine, starts up fine, accelerates fine, cruising not so smooth.
Thoughts? Bad spark plugs, fuel filter, bad luck?

2) check fuel cap : just from searching here on the forums, I'm pretty sure it's a minor thing. But I am going to deal with that.
Oh and...
My hatch wiper motor is toast! Woo!
Again if you need more info, let me know.

I'm not sure what "studdering" means, but I've noticed that when the air conditioner compressor cycles on and off it is a very intrusive thing ... feels like the engine goes up and down on power ... but this would happen every minute or so when you have the a/c on and is especially noticeable at idle.

A stutter due to bad fuel filter is at first noticeable only at full throttle, and not usually at a steady speed ... but it is a cheap thing to do and unless you know for sure it was done in the last 20,000 km or so, I would go ahead and do it. Same goes for air filter.

If your car has more than 50 or 60,000 km the spark plugs could be the cause of the problem ... but again, it's relatively inexpensive to replace the plugs, so unless you know for sure they're fresh, go ahead and do it.

Heck, bring your car out to a Monday meet and we could do it for you in 15 minutes - even if you go with the recommended Ford plugs, they're still only 11 or 12 bucks each.

Obviously it's difficult to diagnose a driving concern without actually driving the car, but hopefully this was helpful.