Hello all.
I just registered today but have been lurking for several months reading threads. Let me start by thanking everyone for all the helpful information that they have posted. It has been vital to keep my Lincoln running.
My lady friend bought a 2000 V8 Lincoln LS last September from my Grandparents. I was an ideal one-owner-driven-once-a-week-to-the-grocery-store type situation and the car only has 70k miles on it. We are really happy to have such a nice luxury car!
A couple months after we bought it we started to have problems with the car. It started with an obvious loss of power when accelerated to freeway speeds, and not long after the check engine light came on. I got the code read at autozone and learned it was a misfire in a cylinder on the drivers side cylinder bank. After some googling and research here (again, thank you) I learned that it was likely one or more ignition coils that had gone bad. I bought a set of 8 new coils on amazon for $70 or so dollars went to replace the 4 coils on the drivers side. When I got in there I found that they were covered in oil, after more research here I found that the valve cover seal had gone bad. I bought a new one and ended up replacing the coils, spark plugs (non motorcraft but still compatible autozone assured me, which I foolishly believed) and the valve cover seal on the drivers side. That fixed the problem. The car ran fine for a month but then started to have the same symptoms as before. I assumed that now the passenger side valve cover seal and COPs had gone bad and it was time to fix them. I took it to autozone to get the code read and the computer told me it was a cylinder 1 and 6 misfire. I was a little nervous because cylinder 6 was on the drivers side but some research told me that the onboard computer was guessing at which cylinder was misfiring and just because it said 6 didn't necessarily mean that 6 was misfiring. So about a month ago I changed the valve cover seal, COPs and spark plugs on the passenger side. The coils definitely had oil them so the valve cover gasket was bad. I cleaned out the oil the best I could. At this point all the COPs and plugs are new. The car ran great for a couple weeks and I assumed I had solved the problem. Then about a week ago my lady friend tells me that the car is stalling! She says that it is idling rough and occasionally at a stoplight it will idle down and die. It always starts back up, but this is a problem I need to solve. A day or two later I took a look at the car and saw the check engine light was on. The following codes were stored, I don't have the numbers but I think they are the same as the ones below. Cylinder one misfire, cylinder six misfire, Misfire monitor, and Advancetrac something (which I take is just informational and may not be relevant to my situation). At this point I am very confused, cylinder one was read as misfiring when the COP was covered in oil, and also again when it had a new plug and coil and valve cover gasket. I had him clear the codes. I bought a new (motorcraft this time) spark plug and went home. I switched the #1 and#2 coil to see if maybe my Amazon purchased coil had already failed, and switched out the brand new off brand spark plug with the motorcraft one. No discernible change in the cars operation, and the CEL stayed off for a couple of days and came back on. I had it checked again and this time I wrote down the codes. They are as follows C1963 Stability control inhibit, P0306 Cylinder 6 Misfire, P1000 Monitor test incomplete, P1100 Mass Airflow sensor intermittent, P1309 Misfire Moniter not enabled. The ones that jumped out at me were the Cylinder 6 Misfire and the MAF one. I read on this forum that a faulty MAF could cause the idle and stalling problem the car is experiencing. I also noticed that while Cylinder 6 was still misfiring, Cylinder one was not, so either swapping the COP or putting in a motorcraft spark plug solved that problem. Armed with this new information I replaced the MAF. My lady friend claimed that the car ran better, but was STILL having the stalling problem. That brings us up to the present. I would like to fix the misfiring cylinders and the stalling problem. I have also taken an unlit propane torch to look for a vacuum leak but have not found one. I understand misfires could also be caused by fuel injectors, but the autozone dude said that if they were faulty they would store a code. I am hoping the vast knowledge base here will help me answer some questions.
Is there some problem that will cause misfires AND stalling while idling?
According the code the MAF was bad, but I replaced it and the car is still stalling, could the computer take time to re learn the proper air and fuel mixture after replacing the MAF, and is there a way to help it along in that process?
Is there a particular vacuum connection I could focus on that commonly fails?
I understand that the next thing that could be faulty and needing replaced is the Idle Air Control valve. Is there a way to test it before I spend 100+ on a part I may not need? Is it possible that the MAF and misfires are related to the IACV? I find it hard to believe the MAF and the IACV both failed simultaneously.
What am I missing? What do I do next? Any and all help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Right now the CEL is back on and I am going to take it to get the codes read. I am assuming they will be the same as above when I had it read last week. A motor craft plug seemed to fix the Cylinder 1 misfire, so if 6 is still misfiring today I will replace the plug, and probably the whole driver side bank with Motorcraft plugs.
I just registered today but have been lurking for several months reading threads. Let me start by thanking everyone for all the helpful information that they have posted. It has been vital to keep my Lincoln running.
My lady friend bought a 2000 V8 Lincoln LS last September from my Grandparents. I was an ideal one-owner-driven-once-a-week-to-the-grocery-store type situation and the car only has 70k miles on it. We are really happy to have such a nice luxury car!
A couple months after we bought it we started to have problems with the car. It started with an obvious loss of power when accelerated to freeway speeds, and not long after the check engine light came on. I got the code read at autozone and learned it was a misfire in a cylinder on the drivers side cylinder bank. After some googling and research here (again, thank you) I learned that it was likely one or more ignition coils that had gone bad. I bought a set of 8 new coils on amazon for $70 or so dollars went to replace the 4 coils on the drivers side. When I got in there I found that they were covered in oil, after more research here I found that the valve cover seal had gone bad. I bought a new one and ended up replacing the coils, spark plugs (non motorcraft but still compatible autozone assured me, which I foolishly believed) and the valve cover seal on the drivers side. That fixed the problem. The car ran fine for a month but then started to have the same symptoms as before. I assumed that now the passenger side valve cover seal and COPs had gone bad and it was time to fix them. I took it to autozone to get the code read and the computer told me it was a cylinder 1 and 6 misfire. I was a little nervous because cylinder 6 was on the drivers side but some research told me that the onboard computer was guessing at which cylinder was misfiring and just because it said 6 didn't necessarily mean that 6 was misfiring. So about a month ago I changed the valve cover seal, COPs and spark plugs on the passenger side. The coils definitely had oil them so the valve cover gasket was bad. I cleaned out the oil the best I could. At this point all the COPs and plugs are new. The car ran great for a couple weeks and I assumed I had solved the problem. Then about a week ago my lady friend tells me that the car is stalling! She says that it is idling rough and occasionally at a stoplight it will idle down and die. It always starts back up, but this is a problem I need to solve. A day or two later I took a look at the car and saw the check engine light was on. The following codes were stored, I don't have the numbers but I think they are the same as the ones below. Cylinder one misfire, cylinder six misfire, Misfire monitor, and Advancetrac something (which I take is just informational and may not be relevant to my situation). At this point I am very confused, cylinder one was read as misfiring when the COP was covered in oil, and also again when it had a new plug and coil and valve cover gasket. I had him clear the codes. I bought a new (motorcraft this time) spark plug and went home. I switched the #1 and#2 coil to see if maybe my Amazon purchased coil had already failed, and switched out the brand new off brand spark plug with the motorcraft one. No discernible change in the cars operation, and the CEL stayed off for a couple of days and came back on. I had it checked again and this time I wrote down the codes. They are as follows C1963 Stability control inhibit, P0306 Cylinder 6 Misfire, P1000 Monitor test incomplete, P1100 Mass Airflow sensor intermittent, P1309 Misfire Moniter not enabled. The ones that jumped out at me were the Cylinder 6 Misfire and the MAF one. I read on this forum that a faulty MAF could cause the idle and stalling problem the car is experiencing. I also noticed that while Cylinder 6 was still misfiring, Cylinder one was not, so either swapping the COP or putting in a motorcraft spark plug solved that problem. Armed with this new information I replaced the MAF. My lady friend claimed that the car ran better, but was STILL having the stalling problem. That brings us up to the present. I would like to fix the misfiring cylinders and the stalling problem. I have also taken an unlit propane torch to look for a vacuum leak but have not found one. I understand misfires could also be caused by fuel injectors, but the autozone dude said that if they were faulty they would store a code. I am hoping the vast knowledge base here will help me answer some questions.
Is there some problem that will cause misfires AND stalling while idling?
According the code the MAF was bad, but I replaced it and the car is still stalling, could the computer take time to re learn the proper air and fuel mixture after replacing the MAF, and is there a way to help it along in that process?
Is there a particular vacuum connection I could focus on that commonly fails?
I understand that the next thing that could be faulty and needing replaced is the Idle Air Control valve. Is there a way to test it before I spend 100+ on a part I may not need? Is it possible that the MAF and misfires are related to the IACV? I find it hard to believe the MAF and the IACV both failed simultaneously.
What am I missing? What do I do next? Any and all help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Right now the CEL is back on and I am going to take it to get the codes read. I am assuming they will be the same as above when I had it read last week. A motor craft plug seemed to fix the Cylinder 1 misfire, so if 6 is still misfiring today I will replace the plug, and probably the whole driver side bank with Motorcraft plugs.
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