Fairtax4me

I've been running Amsoil full synthetic on my Lincoln for the past two years. The first drain I did at 5000 which is the recommended interval for the Motorcraft partial synthetic that Ford uses. After that I started doing regular oil analysis testing every 2500 miles. I run 15k between changes now thanks to info from the analysis. I opened a preferred customer account with Amsoil, which cuts about 1/3 of the cost from everything I buy through them. Granted I have to pay shipping costs, and sales tax, I still come out spending only about $15 more for 6 quarts of oil and a Wix filter, over motorcraft oil and a purolator. But I drive 3 times longer on the synthetic.

Shine a bright flash light at the lower part of the gauge cluster where all the other warning lights are. If it's there it should be near the fuel gauge.

You got some nice rust goin' on there. Soak everything with PB for a day or so before you start tearing it apart. Mostly that affects wheel camber. You'll want to clean that whole area well. Mark the position of both bolts as well as the position of the strut relative to the knuckle. You'll have to line that back up as close as possible on re assembly or the camber will be off and the tire will start wearing unevenly. It will have to be taken to a shop to have the old bearing pressed out and the new bearing pressed in. Call a few places and ask for quotes. It changes depending on labor rates and how long the shop wants to charge you for. Some even stick people with "equipment" charges.

It sounds like a firmware issue with the throttle control to me. I've had similar experiences driving newer cars that have "throttle by wire" and it's not fun at all. Usually it's because of programming that keeps the throttle from opening too quickly. Or to keep the throttle plate drive motor from switching direction suddenly if you make repeated rapid changes in pedal position. Try downshifting the transmission manually as you slow down and see if it still acts the same.

Good job. I have no experience with Optimas, but I've had a few friends who've bought them. None of them lasted more than 6 months.

Does this vehicle have electronic throttle control?

There might be 3 or 4 tabs on the inside of the backing plate that have to be pressed in before the cable can be pulled out. I've seen them like that, and some have a spring clamp that slides into two grooves on either side of the cable.

You need to replace the pulley. Jam the flywheel with a big screwdriver to hold the crank still. You'll just have to reset the position of the crankshaft to TDC before installing the timing belt. This is done with marks on the timing sprocket so you don't need to have the pulley in place to know where TDC is.

Grab some from a junkyard. Most U pull its only want like $5 for an O2 sensor.

There's another possibility. It could be the drive shaft support bearing. That's right in the middle of the car, and will also make whining or whirring noise on acceleration if it's bad. I would try to avoid driving it altogether until you figure out the source of the sound and get it fixed. If there were damage to the differential there would have been metal flakes in the oil. The best thing would be to remove the cover (not easy) and examine the gears visually to see if they are worn excessively.

Possibly because 1700 rpm is not low enough to make the motor lug. All of the new Legacies have the new 3.0 V6 from what I understand, which is a larger motor than the 2.5 which you probably have in your 01. Bigger motor is less likely to lug at lower RPM. It can also be accomplished with engine tuning, changes in cam height and duration, piston stroke length, bore size, lots of things. Also because it's an automatic, the torque converter is able to lock or unlock, depending on conditions, to help keep the engine speed within its useful power band. When you're cruising along at a steady speed, you won't notice as much if the motor IS lugging because you're not trying to accelerate. If you want to go faster, the PCM reads the change in throttle position and determines based on engine speed, wheel speed, and throttle change if it needs to unlock the torque converter, or even downshift to allow the vehicle to accelerate easier, without lugging.

It reads the angle of the throttle plate. It's used to adjust fuel mixture, ignition timing, transmission shift points (on automatics), just to name a few. The proper way to adjust the throttle position sensor is with a multimeter. I would check the adjustment the correct way before calling the issue "fixed".

I think I would expect a bad coil pack to read infinite resistance. Double check all the connections. Make sure all of the fuses are in tact. I've had them blow before when reconnecting the battery. Could have just been the car though. Make sure you're getting fuel and spark. Another thing to remember, you did have the heads off, it could be that the cam timing is 180° off on one or both sides. Remove the rocker covers and verify that the proper valves are opening and closing in the order they're supposed to.

And I was considering a 99 GT 2.5 wagon until reading this thread...

I'd bet the shipping bill would be more than I could buy a rack for at the junkyard, but just for gits a shiggles what do you imagine it would be to get it to 22901? I'll have to take another peek at the hoses, but I might just do both.

You got a loose connection or split wire near the coil. Even with the engine running it shouldn't shock you. (Unless you pull the wire off) Electricity always takes the path of least resistance. You were the path of least resistance in this case, which means that the plug wire is loose or the insulation is cut. Or there may even be a crack in the coil case. When it gets dark open the hood and start the car, no flashlight, you should get a blue light show near the coil pack which would indicate spark is jumping rather than following the wires to the plugs.

That's kinda what I figured. I've dealt with leaking hose connections before (which reminds me I need to get a new pressure hose because it is leaking) and leaking steering shaft seals, but never had one leak from the end like this. It's not a big leak, but it's enough to start dripping out of the boot after a few days. Whereabouts in MD? I'm about 2 hours southwest of the DC area. Is the GT rack any different than any other?

I shouldn't be surprised but I was. I've started feeling some more "clunkiness" from the front end of my car the past few weeks. Did some investigating and found that the inner tie rod end on the drivers side is also completely shot. (just replaced the pass side and the bellows) After cleaning the entire rack in search of a leak in that area I see that the bellows on the drivers side looks to have been replaced not long ago. I snipped the zip tie and pulled the boot back to find the inner rod end covered in dust and small pebbles. Someone replaced the boot because it was ripped. All the rocks and dust that got inside the ripped boot stuck all over the shaft and the inner end, now the ball joint is bad and the rack is leaking from the seal on that side. So anyone know if is possible to replace this seal? I'm kinda thinking I'll be looking for a steering rack in decent shape on my next trip to the JY. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one with all the rod ends in good shape.

There is such a service, and you can, but it's not worth it unless your tires are nearly new and cost A LOT! From what I understand it's fairly expensive to have that done, mostly because of the cost of the machine they use. I'm trying to find it. But for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. I know we have some similar stuff at work that we use with tire patches. But it's a combination of the material on the back of the patch, and the stuff that gets rubbed on that makes the patch vulcanize to the rubber. I used it to patch a nail hole that was right in the gray area between sidewall and tread in one of the tires on my truck. Been there about two years now and I've had no trouble out of it. edit: I'm still searching for this elusive rubber cement, but I've happened across another option for you. Working at a Mercedes dealership I see some awfully expensive tires on a daily basis. $400+ in some cases. On several occasions I know we have sent tires to a local (an hour away) tire repair shop to have sidewall and large tread damage fixed. I don't know how much it costs, but it isn't too hard to find a repair shop in your area and give them a call.

That is beautiful. You usually see carnage on that scale from people dropping the clutch at a roll and putting so much load on the gears that one tooth just snaps off. The rest would soon follow. I bet before they realized what was happening second gear was already ground to a pulp. The bearing probably locked after the fact, or may have locked because is not "round" anymore. After looking at those pics (mostly the amount of wear on the first gear pinion) I feel a little less comfortable about the noise my trans makes in first gear.

I'll second that. Any idea how many miles are on the clutch?

There was some stuff I found a while back, that was a vulcanizing rubber cement. You put two pieces of rubber together with it, and it would bond the outer layers in such a way that you could not take them apart without cutting them. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called or where I saw it though. :-\ Exactly how much tread is left on the tires? You may be able to find a used tire store in your area that has a tire with close to the same wear. Unless you plan to drive 100 mph on a regular basis (I doubt it) Then the size and wear rating is the only thing that really matters for the "new" tire.

As long as it smells like water, ant not antifreeze, then it's fine. It's normal for the humidity in air to condense into visible vapor when cooled. Like a foggy night after an after noon rain shower. Was the condensation on the windshield on the outside? You know when you take a cold beer out of the fridge, and after a few minutes it starts dripping water off the outside of the bottle? The defroster vents can make cold spots on the windshield where moisture in the air outside will condense. Moving the temp setting from coldest to somewhere in the middle will keep dry air moving across the windshield inside but it won't cool it enough to make the humidity outside condense and stick to the glass.

The stubs are probably fine. Axle vibrations are usually most noticeable when accelerating (wobbling). You'll also usually get a harmonic type of shimmy similar to what you would feel with a bad U joint. It will come and go at certain speeds, and you might feel a clunk when going from drive to reverse. I'm thinking either a wheel bearing or tread noise from the tires. Wheel bearings are the hardest to test when on the drive wheels of any car. Best thing to try is jack up the car, grab the top and bottom of each wheel, and try to rock it back and forth. There should not be any play. If there is any noticeable movement, its likely to be the bearing or the ball joint. Have a friend rock the wheel while you look at the ball joint and the inner side of the hub for movement. A good place to watch is the outer cv joint. On non-driven wheels its easy, you just spin the wheel as fast as you can and listen.

It's the radio. Mine was like that. I ditched it in favor of the $400 Panasonic cd player I've had in my closet for the past two years.