Hi guys,

i'm not all that good when it comes to the mechanical side of cars (though reading this site the last few months has helped alot). So i'd appreciate it if you dumb down any advise that you might have for me.

So heres my problem...

recently my beloved falcon has been running a little rough when i put my foot down a fair way. I would describe it as a kinda jerky feeling, as if its trying to decide whether to accelerate or not. (Reading other posts makes me think this might be misfiring?)

not to long ago i put it in for its 180k service and i mentioned this problem to the mechanic and he recommended an auto transmision service to try to solve the problem. so i went through with that and since then it seems to do the same thing at times under less stress than before, and now i also get a realy rough idle every now and then, like i'm on the verge of stalling, and around the same times that that happens it seems to get stuck in a particular gear, it hits a certain amount of revs then wont give me anything more. it might be a good few seconds before it kicks and starts to act how it should again.

Can anyone tell me what is going on? is there anything i can do myself? or any advice to put the mechanic on the right track? any help would be greatly appreciated

Its an auto 96 futura. completely stock as far as i know

what fuel?

has the fuel filter been replaced?
cat convertor could be 'blocked'

just on standard 91 fuel.

does the fuel filter get changed every 10 000 k service? it wasnt on the invoice that i got from the mechanic.

when were the plugs and leads last replaced? check and replace if required

I have a similarish prob with my car. have been told to clean all the contacts on the loom to the box. not sure what to do, but give that a go

and welcome to the site mate! re, not being mechanicly inclined, ask lots of questions and learn lots of stuff! its not too hard, all the info is here theres not too much you can f**k up and lots of support. Also buy yourself a workshop manual, i suggest haynes. explains everything you need to know

thanks guys. i dont think the plugs and leads have been changed since i bought my car so i'll go ahead and get them checked/replaced first. fingures crossed

Plugs and leads mate, you got diddled by your mechanic, he should have taken it for a drive and he would have known straight away it wasn't the transmission causing the engine to miss.
Failing that, I would disconnect the battery for half an hour, then reconnect, so it resets the computer.

hey mate my el, stock, does EXACTLY the same thing but i have just had new plugs and leads put in and still have the problem. not sure about how old my fuel filter is but mine does the same thing but worse when running on gas. i will be getting the gear box serviced in the next week so hopefully that solves everything. fingers crossed

Seems to be a common problem with EF fords. My old 95 EF did it and my current 96 EF does it. When the miss starts it looses power and the auto won't change up. I have tried everything ie replaced all censors, plugs, leeds, coil pack and mine still does it
Best of luck trying to sort out the problem..

Yeah, seems to be the old falcon had it happen a couple once was coilpack, we suspect it was still coilpack again later on but the trans was f**k so we just let it go.


Mine did it actually i was told leads by ford turned out to be an injector problem, and funnily enough that was caused by the ecu failing.

I have a similar problem with a mates EF fairmont we just replaced the head (due to having a crack in it) with a reco AU head and AU MLS with new bolts etc new coolant and cam angle sensor but throws no fault codes, new coil pack, leads, plugs etc just hard to start and once its warm it misses bad to the point it wont go up a 5% incline to a driveway when your driving, It runs ok (just but is only now and then) then if you floor it it thinks about going and hesitates all the way till 4500Rpm them goes well (I have replaced the fuel filter too) cleaned the crank sensor, Is there any chance the crank sensor gear on the harmonic balancer may have moved?

Any ideas? can the trigger wheel on the balancer move or is it part of the inner balancer part?

Other than the remedies mentioned earlier, try an oxygen sensor. Cheap and easy and they DO wear out so it will need replacing sometime.

my neighbour had this problem with el turned out to be the coil but ef's dont have a coil so i recon it might be the cat converter