Need advice on a couple of problems..

TintedChrome

Registered User
My 89 3.8 NA Cougar (yeah yeah, I know.. gutless, and not an S/C :p ) has a problem I can't quite seem to figure out..

When idling in Park, or Neutral, the car is silky smooth at idle. However, when I'm in D or OD, and stopped, the car idles erratically. Kinda lopes, and feels like it misses.. It's nothing major, but you can hear and feel the car miss. Any idea what it could be? Fluids are all fine.. Now, car needs a tune-up badly, so I figure it could be one of two things..

1) Tranny's got some issues (please God, no..)
2) The added stress of having the tranny somewhat engaged on this "in-dire-need-of-a-tuneup" motor is causing it to have the erratic idle..

When I'm driving, it's fine.. Which brings me to my next problem..

If I'm on the highway, and I somewhat floor it, car hesitates before downshifting, and when it finally does, it "clunks" badly.. It's a very noticable jolt.

Heh.. who knows, the two might be related.. :( Now that I've actually written this down, it really feels like it might be my tranny, but I'd really appreciate input from you guys..

One last thing.. I know on GM trannies with OverDrive, it's better for the tranny to be in Drive for regular driving, and only shift to OD when on the highway.. Now a tranny guy I know mentioned that on Ford trannies, it might be better to keep it in OD all the time.. any advice on that?

thanks,

P
 
your car needs a tune up and some maintenance, this will get rid of the erratic idle

the clunk when downshifting is probably a bad u-joint


do some maintenance, cars don't fix themselves
 
cool.. thanks

I just got this car, for dirt cheap, as a daily driver.. Haven't gotten around to getting a tune-up done (my hours at work are kinda whacked out), although it is scheduled for this weekend. I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong before I sink money into it.. My Tbird is more important when it comes to being a money pit ;)
 
Pierre, does sounds like it needs a tune up badly....get some new plugs and check your wires. I have an extra set of Motocraft 8mm wires you may want....I bought them and don't need'em.

How are the motor mounts?

See me on Friday night if you want to talk about the plug wires :)
 
Steve.. a'ight.. I was planning on stopping by on Friday after work.. about 10ish. You gonna be there? How much do you want for the wires? I was planning on replacing those along with the plugs this weekend..
 
1. Clean the MAF wires with windex and a qtip
2. Clean the idle air bypass valve with throttle body cleaner
3. Clean and regap plugs
 
issues

I'm not one to jump to tune up conclusions, but I think it might improve things. Besides plugs and wires on a N/A is a piece of cake.
Idlebypass clean t-body both good ideas from what you described.
TRANNY: on my 90 SC I drove around the city NOT in OD - and only shifted into OD once UP to speed so it was not engaging the OD band under load. I strongly believe this is good practice, and will truely benefit the OD band's life.
I did install a cooler on my 90 SC auto, but it has gone 280k and I am confident the transmission is still quite good.
 
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