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I figured I'd post a recent success story to give others some validation / helpful hints in their problem-solving thought processes.
Over a period of two months, I had intermittent cold idle / starting problems. The car would crank, but die immediately unless I revved the engine while it was in park for a few minutes. It gradually worsened, but would only occur once every 2-3 weeks in the morning. By the end, the problem wasn't going away until I almost got to work (15 minutes).
Also, during this time-frame, I started to feel slight a hesitation problem while crusing 45-60 mph. (The sort of hesitation that only the official car owner can feel) It was not bad, but grew to be more noticable.
Finally, this weekend, I was cruising around my hometown, and the problem got to the unmanagable point. Not only did I always have to keep the RPM's above 1k by left-foot braking while I kept the accelerator down at stoplights, but the hesitation I felt finally revealed it's true form + turned into major, jerky power loss. The car would sputter + jerk when I would try to accelerate. The check engine light also came on, but for no longer than 3 seconds after I would pull my foot off the accelerator.
I 'limped home' (at least, that's what it felt like) to my parent's garage, and began to diagnose. I checked this bulletin board and read up on oxygen sensor's + 60k maintenace. I check the records of the previous owner, and wasn't able to find when it O2 sensor had been replaced, so I decided to start there. I ordered a Mustang '95 5.0L O2 sensor + a new Fuel Filter at my local parts store, and waited a day for them to show up.
I swaped out the O2 Sensor + Fuel filter without any trouble - I had to do some splicing and soldering on the sensor to get it to work in the saab, but being a geek, that wasn't too much trouble.
I crossed my fingers + cranked, and to my avail, the problem persisted. I limped around the neighborhood to see if the computer needed a few minutes to recognize the O2 sensor + make adjustments, but the problem still persisted.
I moved onto the Air Mass Meter, hoping that it wasn't in need of replacement. I ran through the Bentley Tests and they all checked out just fine: I disconnected it from the air scoop / filter + checked the glow / voltage. However, When I got done testing the AMM the problem was gone: the car was idling just fine in the garage. Curious, but overjoyed, I took it for a spin, had one slight hesitation, but other than that, the car worked fine. I fell asleep content.
The next day, driving around town again, the problem re-surfaced. I limped home again, and opened the hood up + disconnected the AMM. The problem went away again. My brain finally clicked: I realized that when I had the AMM detached from the air-scoop, I was bypassing the Air Filter. I pulled the Air Filter out, and YUCK. That thing was disgusting.
It was Christmas Eve, so I wasn't able to find a new filter in town. I blew the old one out with an Air Compressor, and then ordered some new ones off of eEuroparts.com. I dropped the cleaned filter in, and took a test-drive and did not experience the problem in the slightest.
The next day, I drove for three hours, and have seen been to work and back, and the problem is gone.
Sorry to be so verbose, but when I need help, I like to have a lot of details!
Taylor
'91 900S / 140k
posted by 24.162.2...
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