Is Mechanic giving me a BS story?
 

Yesterday, our POS Taurus's water pump went out. Since I hate working on those horizontal engines, I took it to the garage.
When my g/f and I went to pick it up today, she started it up and it wouldn't idle on it's own.
She said. "it never did that before". So starts looking around the engine compartment for loose vacuum hose etc. and finds nothing amiss. After keeping the engine running by working the throttle lever, it starts to idle on it's own again.
He said when the pump went bad and was spraying antifreeze all over the place, that antifreeze can do damage to spark plugs wires and could cause it to act like that.
He told me to take it for a spin down the road and back. It ran fine like it always did and stayed idling when I returned.
He said "yeah, antifreeze was all over the place when I brought it into the bay and probably has to all dry up before it will idle normal again".
Later on tonight after it cooled off, it was the same thing...wouldn't idle until after a few minutes working the throttle.
I think his whole story was BS. What do you guys think is
really wrong with it?(besides the fact that Taurus suck!!)

I've never heard anything like that before... :(

I've never heard anything like that before either. I don't see why antifreeze would do something like that, doesn't have any corrosive or nasty chemicals in it or anything. I think he's full of SHEET!

Does the car blow any smoke when its doing that?

I know that those cars (at least some) had real bad problems with the head gaskets. Sounds like there is some coolant collecting in a cylinder and you have to keep it running until it burns off.

Can't remember if you've said you did the gaskets recently.:confused:

check your throttle position sensor, that's what it sounds like, i had a new one put on my f-150, wont idle at all cold, but once it warms up , no prob, just a thought.
:confused: :D

If the battery was disconnected, as it should have been for the pump replacement, then the ECM needs to go through what's called a "re-learn", where it re-learns the driving characteristics of the owner. With some vehicles, this can actually take a day or two, and until it settles in, the car will act strange. I would recommend driving it for another day or so to see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't correct itself after a day or two, take it back and tell them you want it fixed.

Take care,
~Chris

Two things come to mind, one, the throttle postion sensor could have gotten wet, two, your temp sensor for the computer is going out, or is out. On my bronco, and I think yours too, there are two sensors for water temp, one for your gauge, and another for the computer.

The TPS on my car has to be manually adjusted with pliers (had to bump the idle to keep the bastard from stalling :rolleyes: ) so why would it matter if it got wet? Are Tauri different? :confused:

If it's like my bronco, it the same thing as a reostat. If it gets gunk on it, or gets wet, they can short out and/or burn out. Thus the computer doesn't know the postion of the throttle, which can cause the motor to rise and fall, sometimes die. Yours must be manual, mines electric

The TPS is a rheostat, and if it got fluid inside it, it would cause problems. But, it would have set a code, and the MIL would be on.

Take care,
~Chris

I've seen bad TPS and it didn't show up in the codes before. Changed the part, no more probs.

It's very possible for a bad TPS to not throw a code, but not one that is bad because it's wet. If it was wet, it would return a value that was too high all the time, which would trigger a code.

Take care,
~Chris

OIC, didn't know that

I think it certainly could be from moisture. What happens when you wash your engine down somwtimes? Your wires get wet, and water collects in the distributor cap. The engine runs like crap If this pump blew coolant all over the place it could have gotten into the ignition, especially if the fluid was hot and steamy at the time.

Anti-freeze will not evaporate like water, and will leave a film of anti-freeze, which in turn could cause the problem. Pull the cap and check for moisture inside, and moisture in the plug wire insulators at both ends.

Excellent point! I gotta say, though, that's a pretty crappy mechanic that would return a car to the owner in that condition if in fact that is the cause!

Take care,
~Chris

I already checked inside the cap and there was no moisture. If it still does it tomorrow then I'll check both ends of the plug wire insulators like Maroon 5.0 said to do.
How much is a TPS sensor? Are they easy to replace?
I'm sure it has to do with something with that antifreeze spraying all over the place because it didn't start acting up like that until after the pump was replaced.

Deuce , it doesn't blow any smoke that would indicate a head gasket. It doesn't overheat, have lose of power or milky oil.
It appears that someone else has already had the pleasure of replacing the head gaskets :D :D

Most of the mechanic's I've run into are parts replacement specialists. Trial and error, and the customer gets charged for all the new parts, needed or not.

My '94 E-150 4.9 needed an EGR. I took it to my friendly Ford dealer, and had a new EGR and EVP installed. New parts were installed and the check engine lite still came on. He fooled around with this thing for hours and hours.

He finally found the pin on the EVP was just a tad too short, and would not activate when the EGR told it too. There was a part number change along the line somewhere on the EGR, but the new part number wouldn't work with the old part number EVP.

This guy was about to pull his hair out, but he stuck with it, and the labor charge was only for R&R the EGR. They charged the extra labor to warranty, because FOMOCO screwed up on the parts. Now that's unusual!

Perhaps we haven't met. Allow me to introduce myself, name's Chris.

Now you have met one that's different.

Take care,
~Chris

I'll second that! He sure is different!! :p :D

Thank you! smartass

:D :D

How ya doin' Mike

:D

Take care,
~Chris