youareabus

Skip, no apology nessesary but please accept mine. Like I said I was getting frustrated at the situation with this car, that's all. The alt was putting out 'some' amps when I reved it, quite sure after the fact the windings were shorted winding-to-winding not winding-to-ground. Couldn't tell that until I put a meter on it but hey, I shouldn't have said "alternator's fine" until I knew that for sure. I thought the CEL was something more serious then the solonoids themselves as I had already jumped them out with resistors. Problem was the resistors I used. I'm not sure what the issue was with them but I look at that and see if I can nail down the difference so to help somone else in the same boat.

I'm certainly no expert at this problem like most of you are. That being said I did just fix mine by using 3 100 ohm resistors tied together in parallel to get 33.33... ohm. The resisters I used at first ohmed out right but did not do the trick. The ones I tied up are .25 watt resistors from Radio Shack making a total of .75 watt capability. That worked, no CEL now. RS sells the resistors in a 5 pack (first link) and in a set (second link). I had the set and got the 6 I needed for 2 solonoids but if you are only having a problem with one you can buy the 5 pack. Heres the links: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062339&cp=2032058.2032230.2032267&allCount=100&fbn=Type%2F1%26%23047%3B4+Watt+Resistors&f=PAD%2FProduct+Type%2F1%26%23047%3B4+Watt+Resistors&fbc=1&parentPage=family http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062304&cp=2032058.2032230.2032267&parentPage=family I also replaced the alternator at the same time I put in the new resistors. I am going to check mine by pulling out the resistors and hooking the solonoids back up to verify if the CEL returns. I have an idea that with the alt going bad it's possible that I was getting voltage spikes or AC ripple at the ECU and maybe that was the "real" problem. I will post with the results.

I finaly was able to get back to this car with a couple of hours to really get into it. Yes, the alt was toast, shorted winding. Replaced that and all is well there. Also got the CEL stuff fixed, something with the resistors I put in for the EGR solenoid and purge solenoid was screwey. I think the ones I used were not enough amperage. I made up some new ones by twisting up 3 (each) 100 ohm resisters (paralelled) to get 33.33... ohms. All dash lights are off and the CEL has not set itself again after 100 miles yesterday. I'm happy now. I wasn't debating Fords, just responding to others responses. Don't get grumpy on me, I'm grumpy enough for the both of us.... So where is the best place to find these solenoids for a good price?

I am a Ford guy and have always been. Actually I'm a car guy that specializes in Fords and own a business that sells Vintage Mustang parts ( http://www.vintage-automotive.com ) among other things, and had a full service automotive shop for several years. I sold that shop in 1991. I'm behind the times on the every-brands idiosynchrosies. At the moment I own 9 Fords, vintage 1967 up to a new Ranger. I really do like soobies, I worked on a bunch when I had my shop and compared to most everything out there of this vintage it's a GREAT car. Please, nobody think I'm down on soobies, I'm not. I like them, that's why I bought this one. I'm just a little frustrated on this particular car because every time I think I have it whipped and can send my girl off down the road 300 miles something else goes wrong with it. I am not there to fix it or put her in another car for a couple of days when it breaks. It's a dad thing.

I'll check the alternator for AC output and see what I get. I already have checked and cleaned those 2 multi-connectors, see post. I will check for output at the connector for power in the run position. I'll do that after I've fixed this latest problem.... I have 4 Fords of this vintage. I don't have these kinds of problems with any of them. I'm not being a DA, It's just that I'm getting a bit frustrated. I bought this car, fixed 15 different problems, and a handfull of other stuff pops up. I like soobies, that's why I bought it. The thing is I bought it to give to my daughter and at this point I can't do that. I keep having to chase down elusive crap. I'm a little worried that as soon as she drives away with it I'm going to get a call. Are there any upstanding 20-something soobie guys living in Spokane where she's at?......... ________________________________________________________

OK. I'm getting a little tired of this BS already. I still have found no good reason for the CEL to keep throwing EGR solenoid codes so the CEL stays on. Now, I'm leaving work on lunch and take off down the road, hit a bump and the charge light, the door ajar light and a couple of others come on on the dash. I don't remember what all but several indicator lights popped on at once. The voltage guage went down and was showing about 8 volts. No, the alternator's fine. when I rev it it brightens up like normal. I will throw a meter on it but had no time. I just took the thing over to my shop and parked it. Somewhere there is a serious bad connection. I have brand new battery cables, new battery, I pulled the 2 big harness connectors (under the battery) loose and cleaned them and put them back together with dielectric grase while chasing the CEL. I have checked the major ground strap from the engine to the body and it is fine. One thing I noticed when chasing the CEL is once I cleared the codes they would stay off until I drove it down the road. (bump again?). Somebody point me in the right direction or I'm going to buy a Ford and be done with this......

I just bought one on Amazon.com for 12 bucks and a couple of bucks for shipping. Some people want up to 40 bucks for theirs on Amazon. I think it's a cute book to have but it is certainly not what I'd call "In-depth". If you have been used to the real John Muir book " How to keep your VW alive, for the complete idiot" you will be a little dissapointed. There is no "How to straigten your bent crankshaft with a claw hammer and an old bicycle part" section. Not any "How to do bodywork with a brick and sheetrock mud" section either. There is however quite a few "Take it to your dealer" recomendations in the soobie book. Still, I bought it. I am giving it to my daughter along with the car..........

I changed the resistor on the Purge solenoid to 40Mohms and cleared the codes. I restarted and still code 35. I disconnected the batterey for 24 hours and restarted. Still code 35. I did do a continuity check between the 2 connectors on the wht/blk wire and the resistance was zero so the circuit is OK. Where do I go from here to find the real problem on code 35? Could this actually be the ECU? I hope not as it seems pretty silly to replace the ECU for an Purge solenoid error code.

Nope. I didn't do that but I will give it a shot. I just figured that if the CEL went out with the "clear" procedure then that was that.

OK, I tied 2 37 ohm resistors together in series to make 74 Mohms and made up 2 of those with male spade connectors. I pulled the connectors on the EGR solenoid and the purge solenoid and installed them and cleared the codes again. My CEL still came back on right away but it is only throwing the 35 code now(purge). So unless the 34 code comes back I fixed the EGR solenoid problem and will replace the part when I can. I still don't know why the Purge code is coming back unless it's looking for a different resistance. Cougar - I'll check that out. The connectors are good at the engine end but I'll check the continuity of the white/black wire between them.

There are 2 under-dash covers on my Loyale. The first one is gone and the second one is the lower dash cover. I found the LED and pulled the codes. Thank you for your help here. The codes I got are 34 and 35. EGR solenoid or circuit, and Purge control solenoid or circuit. I cleared the codes again, (connect the 2 connector sets, start the engine, CEL goes out, shut it off) and disconnected the connectors and started the engine again. Instant CEL. I also tried this with the EGR solenoid connector disconnected and it did the same thing. It still throws BOTH codes instantly on restart so there has to be a commonality here. Where to go from here, has anyone fought this battle before and can give me a good reason why this is most likely X, Y, or Z? THANKS!!

Nope. The plastic cover is off so I'm looking right at the bottom of the ECU. There IS a metal shield over just the ECU though, appears to be a mounting bracket. There are NO test connectors still connected. On this one there are a green pair and a white pair and they are in the engine compartment next to the spare on the drivers side. OK, curious, there is another box about the same size mounted to the bottom of the package shelf in the trunk. That one is marked with a generic "control unit". The one above the steering column looks just about the same with no sticker and more wires.

OK, I've cleared the codes as the USRM says and the CEL goes out. It lights back up as soon as the engine is re-started. I can't see any led's on the computer blinking. I even checked at night and no sign of anything blinking at all. So straighten me out here. After searching and reading every post I could find on this, the ECU is suposed to blink the "OK" code whenever the key is turned to the "on" position. Do I have to pull the ECU out and hang it from under the dash to see the codes? Where on the ECU are the LED's? Walk me through this as even though this has been talked about a lot, there are peices missing that likely are filled in as soon as you do it the first time. 92 Loyale FWD

Yeah, this car is going to my daughter when I get all the goofy stuff fixed so I want it to be as "normal" as possible. I don't want her to have to "mess" with anything. I just want her to get in and drive...... she can use the trunk key but prying the gas door open everytime is probably not good.

OK, this is how I fixed it. I cut the cable off passed the little crimped on fitting on the cable and pulled out the section continuing on to the trunk lock. Then I welded a little bracket I made onto the door pop bracket and slotted it for the cable. Now it's a pull cable and not a push to pop the gas door. I tried to get good pictures of it with the cable installed but it's too dark in the trunk, yes it was broke just where you said it was - the plastic ring broke off the end of the cable shield. I used it just as-is to clip into the arm and it works slick. Here's a pic of the bracket.(I think the pic will come up, this is the first one I have tried here. I attatched it under Additional options).

OK, figured out but not fixed yet. The long cable from the lever to the gas door lever is broken where it connects to the gas door lever. the outside ring on the cable is broken off, not the cable itself. I'm going to pull out the trunk release part and fix the cable end somehow. The trunk opens fine with the key anyway. I'll post how I fixed it when I get-er done.

So it IS this lever? With the trunk open when I move this lever it moves the cable on the trunk release. Is there some kind of linkage in the middle of the cable or something that splits this into 2? There is only one cable off the lever by the seat. Also, I tried gently prying open the gas door and it seemed to want to tweak the door before ever popping open. I didnt want to bend the door if I was just missing the release.

Please, I feel bad enough already....... 92 Loyale. I THOUGHT it was the lever on the floor to the left of the drivers seat but that's the trunk release and up/down does nothing to pop the gas door. I can't find a button anywhere but I'm probably looking right at it.

Thanks Numbchux. At least now I know which ones to look for. Sure beats buying the right bolt patters/size/width and having them not clear the brakes!

I'm trying to get a set of extra wheels to mount studded tires on for the winter. Do all 4 bolt 13" sooby wheels interchange or are there specific years/models that interchange?

Yeah yeah. I know. I should have towed it off first. The story could be different though, I could have towed it off and found out that the engine was trash, the tranny was bad etc etc. Considering that all that seems fine the $50 was well spent, even though it was still un-ethical of the seller. I kind of look at it like the $50 was worth finding out that the rods wern't through the side of the block...........

Thanks all! daeron - I buy all my tires from Tirerack.com and have big-n-nasty Kuhmo's on all my trucks. Those work excelent in the snow and ice but are a much more agressive tread big off-road tire. Those ones in the link LOOK pretty good. Ever Victorious - Really? Those Kuhmos sucked? I wonder if I can get those studded? I'm definately going with the 185-60 or 70's then. I want the most print I can get. Now I just need a Soobie nut in Spokane so I know who to call if my daughter gets in trouble with this thing?

The car seems to be just a really well taken care of original stock 92 Loyale with a bad batt cable. The body's in fine shape, a couple of small door dings and that's it as far as I could find. Kinda' a dark gray metalic color and the paint looks good. I think a wash/wax would do it wonders but even dusty the paint had good gloss to it and there was no aparent fading. The interior is also in great shape for a 14 yo car. The interior is kinda' a medium blue cloth and there was no rippage that I found, at least with a quick look. Not smelly-bad or stained up or torn up. The stereo is the original radio-only. It needs tires so that's a right away thing. Maybe I should post a different thread but what is the maximum tire size I can run on this without hitting the wheelwells when turning? Stock size is 175-70, can I stuff 185's or 195's, or 195 - 60's or something in there to get a little bit more tread on the ground? I need to buy winter tires as this is going to my daughter in Spokane and it's coming on winter.

So, I go to check out the car today, 92 Loyale, $300, and it won't turn over. The seller told me all about the car and that it had been sitting for the last few months because they couldn't get it to start. They put a new battery in it and still couldn't get it to turn over so they were selling it as "not running". Talking to them originally they said that it would turn over but not start, but they don't have the mechanical gene so there terms and mine were aparently different. I pulled my truck up to it and hooked up my cables so I could at least see if I could get it to turn over, maybe build oil pressure and see if I could hear any nasty sounds. I had the seller hit the key and it cranked for about 1-1/2 seconds and sparked at the batt cable where it goes into the clamp at the battery........ and fired right up! Engine sounds just fine, very light TOD, smooth and quiet, charging fine. It needs a positive batt cable. Flippin awesome. So I looked at the seller and she had a funny look on her face and I knew what was coming next....... "well now it's running, it ought to be worth more, how about $400?". My reply "nope". (Remember, 5 minutes ago it was $300 and I'M the one that made it run.......). We talked a few more minutes and she came back with "how about $350?". I thought about it for a minute or two and told her yes. I could be a fool and let this sweet and clean little car get away for pride, or hand her $350. I handed her $350. The way I see it is when I showed up I would have had to troubleshoot the car anyway, there could have been a couple of hundred dollars worth of engine work to do, and it was an unknown. As it sits I have to buy a batt cable and go through it with maintenance. I think I got a good car for a good deal.

Very likely the tech did not do the belt right. If it's not timed right (the belt/cams) it will overheat, either from late cam timing or impossible to adjust ignition timing - the distributor is at the end of the range of adjustment and still won't bring the timing in. Symtoms are being down on power and it just doesn't run right. If the belt is too tight it will whine and can "flutter", if it's too loose it will "flap". I don't know why some techs want to string the timing belts really tight, it's not an alternator belt. It's a cogged belt and needs to be tensioned correctly. I'd take it back to the shop. The manager will know that it's not the first time that particular tech has done stuff like this.