Bear with me this is a long one….
I recently bought a ls knowing it had some “issues” the check engine light was on and the car seemed a little sluggish. My friend who is a salesman at a ford dealer sold it to me and said that it had not even been inspected yet and had been traded in, coincidently the previous owner was my neighbor, funny coincidence but I live in a small town, anyway I went and talked to him about it before buying it and he said that the car had been great while he had it and had just had a tune up, new radiator, (not sure why…) and brand new tires. Then the engine light came on and he took it to the dealer to get it fixed but ended up leaving with a brand new Lincoln pickup. He said he didn’t even find out what was wrong with the car.
When I test drove it there was still cigar ashes in the ash tray, and my friend the salesman said that it had not even come out of the “bull pin” a holding lot for cars that have just been traded in. It seemed fine but a little sluggish and sometimes seemed to jerk or feel like it was not able to choose the right gear. IT was at these times that the check engine light would blink but after a while it would stop blinking when the car appeared to be operating fine. My friend and another salesman suspected a PCB Solenoid, the one in the tranny, which after research I have learned is a weak point and has similar symptoms
I have continued researching and have leaning about the bad COPS and VCG which also appear to have the same symptoms when misfiring. I am starting to lean more towards this as my problem because it would seem to me that at the time the check engine light is blinking it would be misfiring and when it goes back to constantly on it is operating fine?
Other then that the car is flawless and everything works perfect but unfortanhlty it has started to get worse. It now has a rough idle, sometimes rougher than others, it will sometimes stutter or shake in the 40 -50mph range, sometimes the reverse takes quite some time to kick in and drive even does that once in a while and finally the other day when I came to a fairly quick stop from 50 mph it almost died and was hovering at like 300rpm. Oh yea and recently it started to knock which I am praying is due to using regular gas by mistake or the cops getting worse. The car still runs good and sounds fine when you rev it or put some gas into it when the symptoms appear so I don’t think there is anything too wrong with it…..
Before I gamble on buying the cops and vcgs or buying the tranny solenoid I was hoping that some of you all could dispense your wisdom and let me know what’s wrong. My living situation dictates that I cannot really tear it apart to diagnose beforehand…well maybe but I’m kind of lazy too…
Oh yea....My car is a 2001 LS V8 and this site kicks major A. It's the best one stop LS resource I have found on the net yet!!!
I recently bought a ls knowing it had some “issues” the check engine light was on and the car seemed a little sluggish. My friend who is a salesman at a ford dealer sold it to me and said that it had not even been inspected yet and had been traded in, coincidently the previous owner was my neighbor, funny coincidence but I live in a small town, anyway I went and talked to him about it before buying it and he said that the car had been great while he had it and had just had a tune up, new radiator, (not sure why…) and brand new tires. Then the engine light came on and he took it to the dealer to get it fixed but ended up leaving with a brand new Lincoln pickup. He said he didn’t even find out what was wrong with the car.
When I test drove it there was still cigar ashes in the ash tray, and my friend the salesman said that it had not even come out of the “bull pin” a holding lot for cars that have just been traded in. It seemed fine but a little sluggish and sometimes seemed to jerk or feel like it was not able to choose the right gear. IT was at these times that the check engine light would blink but after a while it would stop blinking when the car appeared to be operating fine. My friend and another salesman suspected a PCB Solenoid, the one in the tranny, which after research I have learned is a weak point and has similar symptoms
I have continued researching and have leaning about the bad COPS and VCG which also appear to have the same symptoms when misfiring. I am starting to lean more towards this as my problem because it would seem to me that at the time the check engine light is blinking it would be misfiring and when it goes back to constantly on it is operating fine?
Other then that the car is flawless and everything works perfect but unfortanhlty it has started to get worse. It now has a rough idle, sometimes rougher than others, it will sometimes stutter or shake in the 40 -50mph range, sometimes the reverse takes quite some time to kick in and drive even does that once in a while and finally the other day when I came to a fairly quick stop from 50 mph it almost died and was hovering at like 300rpm. Oh yea and recently it started to knock which I am praying is due to using regular gas by mistake or the cops getting worse. The car still runs good and sounds fine when you rev it or put some gas into it when the symptoms appear so I don’t think there is anything too wrong with it…..
Before I gamble on buying the cops and vcgs or buying the tranny solenoid I was hoping that some of you all could dispense your wisdom and let me know what’s wrong. My living situation dictates that I cannot really tear it apart to diagnose beforehand…well maybe but I’m kind of lazy too…
Oh yea....My car is a 2001 LS V8 and this site kicks major A. It's the best one stop LS resource I have found on the net yet!!!
