2002 Mercury Sable rough idle with misses

BLUEBOY46

MEMBER
2002 MERCURY SABLE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
160,000 MILES

I recentley had a good friend and great mechanic work on my 2002 Sable. He generally dose not work on Ford products but he made the exception. I was having a terrible rough engine idle, with many missfires. I took it to have it coded at Auto Zone. The readout was that I had a problem(missfire on cylender #1). It also Inidcated that the cam shaft positioner may have a problem. I was able to replace the cam shaft positioner and fuel filter myself. I did have my mechanic, take it from there. He replaced the wire set & plugs. He also found a leak in the thermostat housing unit, and replace that as well. However after spending $450.00 I still have the miss in idle, but now it is worse. The engine starts out rough in drive, but does smooth out after getting through the gears. Then, while in overdrive if I try to accelerate, it hesitates & chugs. I have to back off the throttle, then it smooths out again. My mileage has drop substantially. Can you make any suggestions to help me pick a direction to take the proper action without costing a bundle. I love it for my work car, but is it worth sinking any more money into it?

Thanks.
Bobby Beardman

1 Reply

BMRFIXIT

MECHANIC
19,053 POSTS

We have codes
codes point the tech to the troubled area
what it sounds to me as if you have a misfire and I would check the cylinder that the misfire code
very common to have a weak coil
check coil, check injector, check compression
if not familiar with ford he/she may be mistaken or unknowingly going after the wrong cylinder
make sure have the correct firing order
if you can get me the codes I will run it through my data base and check what we have on them