Lately the EFII Fairmont has been doing some funky stuff. There has been no recent mods or changes to the car, just kinda out-the-blue.

What'll happen is when the car is up to temp (say 5-10mins) I pull into a shop. Stop the car. Do the business. Come back and start the car up.

What happens is;

1. Engine coolant temp high light comes on;

2. Engine coolant needle registers nothing, ie down the bottom of the guage;

3. Thermo fans run on high, (can usually tell when it does as they run when the key is to on;

4. Black smoke from exhaust - Not a lot, but enough to concern me;

5. Gearbox won't go into fourth gear;

6. Runs like it's on 3 cylinders. Idles roughly 350rpm.


However - If I stop the engine and turn the car off, then try to start it again, it purrs like a kitten. Sometimes it'll start on the 2nd go, sometimes 12go.

If I can't get it to start properly after a few mins, I'll drive away with it running like crap (then after picking the time and place), turn the key to OFF, (whilst in Neutral) then start it again. This method works 100% of the time.

Levels, connections and hoses are fine. Has got me stunned after 20 years of driving fords and having nearly everything else happen.

If anyone has any ideas to as what it could possibly be, it would be muchly appreciated.

Last edited by rossi on Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

try changing spark plugs, leads, new oil maby and also the fuel filter, sort of the same thing happens to my car when i dont service it for a while

try a different ECU could be an elec problem

my falcon does this just before she's due for a tune.
I had the exact same problems...
when it was hot it used to chug a bit too sometimes take a couple of tries to start.

recently i took it to a different place and they replaced the leads, normal oil check so on.. but they found the fuel around the fuel filter was like a jelly.. replaced that and hasnt missed a beat.
It even sounds better, drives like a cloud.

Had a win on this one. I've noticed that it doesn't happen when it's cold. So I took it for a drive until the probs started happening again.

About 20mins in it starts coughin and splutterin so I took the Chiptorque chip out. Car runs fine again. Did this a couple times to make sure that I had isolated the problem. Noticed that the ECU gets pretty darn hot.

Got the digital temp and strapped it to the case of the ECU. 3 times at 37degs the car started to run like crap. Prognosis is that the chip shuts down (limits it operation) I suppose at roughly 37degrees.

All I have to do now is to run some sort of piping somehow to the ECU to keep it cool.

No........ contact chiptorque & let them know of your problem, I mean their problem. let them know of your disappointment since you had it installed. you know, like sleepless nights, hours spend tracing the faults & all the Rev reviews you've now heard since you started digging.

Nothings beats a custom dyno tune dude.