I've recently had a transmission change out done to this vehicle at around 50,000 mi. or so, and the car has roughly 65,000 on it now. Before my last tranny died, the car would shudder just a bit, as if it were starting to kick down in gears, yet the car was in full motion. Say I would be going the speed limit, 65 or so, steadily on and suddenly I would feel a slight loss in acceleration. The car is now showing signs of this every once in a while yet again. I have changed out my driver's side wheel bearing, and have yet to change out the passenger side, but my question here is would faulty wheel bearings be a cause as to why the last tranny could have died, i.e : possibly shook the clutch pack enough to cause it to be misaligned then caused the tranny to lock up? Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Actually, what could cause the car to act this way? As I mentioned before, I already went through one transmission change, and I cannot afford another....

 

The only thing I can think of is poor quality parts. But it may not be the trans. It could be the fuel filter needing to be replaced, injectors that need cleaning, etc. It could also be an egr valve opening too far or some vacuum line that's disconnected or broken. All of these can cause adverse and seemingly strange loss of power conditions.

 

First question, which engien do you have?? IS it the 24 valve DOHC duratec 3.0 or the 12 valve overhead vale 3.0???

NExt question, why exatly did you have the trans replaced?? Was it slipping, not shifting, or simply not moving at all??? Or was it replaced due to the problem you are having now??

The wheel bearings aren;t going to destroy the transmission so you'll be okay with that..

AS Slymer mentioned, bad plugs, fuel filter, ignition coils, plug wires, dirty injectors and all that tuneup stuff can cause similar issues.. SOmething else that can cause some strange problems such as yours is the EGR valve.. I've also heard/encounted a few issues pertaining to failed catalytic converters on some of tha lter model Taurus/Sable cars...

Interestingly enough I had a 97 Sable and a 2000 Taurus (Both with the 24 valve engine) that had similar issues.. The 2000 still does it to this day at AFIK and I got rit of it at 120K 2 years ago... THe 97 did it as well from 70K to about 120K.. Oddly enough it completely stopped after that until about 140K it just all of a sudden stopped moving all together... Turns out the torqe converter failed on that one...

 

Ok. Sorry that I didn't leave the details of the vehicle last time. Standard 12 valve 3.0 engine, AX4N transmission. The last transmission just died on me all of a sudden. You could start the car, put it into ANY gear, and the car would not move at all, just rev up whenever you gave it gas. I am now curious, as seeing how putting a tad bit of dielectric grease on the coil pack end of the plug wires has stopped the loss of power in the car, and now I seem to have a slight to mild chirping noise that sounds almost like a squeaky chain without oil comming from the driver side of the engine case near the top portion of the engine... I can't see any visable signs of anything wrong, i.e. loose or detached hoses, ect, ect.... some took a peek at it and said that it could possibly be a loose timing chain, but I am still unclear as to what or where the sound is.... I recently also had a check engine light pop up with a DTC P-1131, which with a little research seems to be pointing to some sort of vacuum leak, which as I mentioned before is not visible....

 

the chirp is probably a belt pulley (the idler pulley usually goes first followed by the tensioner pulley a few months to a year later). You may also have a slick spot on a pulley and just need to spray the belt (groove side) with some belt dressing to clean it off.

as for the loss of power issue being resolved with the dielectric grease, this can happen on older cars when the connectors get dirty. The grease helps keep the connector clean and corrosion free to allow good contact.

as for the code, you might have bad oxygen sensors, a vacuum leak, bad PCV valve, or clogged injectors. If you can't find any vacuum lines that are cracked, disconnected, or otherwise venting, your next best bet is the PCV valve. It should allow airflow one way only. if it's leaking both ways, then replace it.

You may also need to run some injector cleaner through the system.

 

Sounds like the torque converter failed on your old transmission.. They had trouble with the splines in the converter that drive the oil pump in the transmssion.. They would strip and boom no hydraulic pressure = no movement.. Just a hunch, thought I would throw that out there for someone who may be searching in the future...

Good news on the grease fixing you up!!


I would be betting also that your accessory belt is noisy, buy you mention that you hear it towards the driver side of the engine.. THe noise could be carrying.. If nothing else remove the belt and start the car briefly to see if the noise goes away. Belt dressing or WD40 may work too, but I;ve never been a fan of those.. THe timing chains are pretty robust in the Vulcan 3.0.. If it woudl be making any noise it all it would be a rattling/raping type noise...


AS far as you code, follow slymer's instructions.. One other thing that has been known to cause this issue is a dirty mass aiflow sensor.. Usually that sets the code for both cylinder banks though.. The code you have is for bank one sensor one.. That would be the rear bank (next to the firewall) and the sensor in the exhaust manifold... If no vac leaks are found and some injector cleaner doesn;t help it will probably be the sensor itself...

 

i knew dali was the man