A Different Kind Of Surging Engine

[Guest darrenb]

Dear Anyone,

 

Hi there. I have a 96 petrol 2.0 Galaxy with a rather annoying engine problem. It tends to happen in 4th or 5th gear, especially when the car is doing 50+ mph. One moment you're going along smoothly, the next it feels like something is sucking the car back, the speed drops by a mile or two, and then the car seems to lurch free, as if it's suddenly escaped from a patch of thick treacle. A few seconds latter it does it again. If you're not careful it builds up into a real shaking.

 

The daft thing is, it doesn't do it all the time. E.g. On a recent trip it did it all the way up the M1, but then mysteriously stopped when we turned onto the M6!

 

The local garage are baffled. Has anyone any ideas, please?

 

Yours

 

Darren

[Guest sgs]

A little late Darren but have the same problem right now check out my thread:- http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/index.php?showtopic=3601

Found out that the first batch of galaxys were fitted with poorly programed ecus' which under warranty FORD would change, little chance now though they want

[Guest zephyr]

where did you find thsi out about the ecus?

will replacing the ecu solve the problem does anyone know?

[sepulchrave]

You could simply get the ECU reprogrammed (chipped), the fault will lie within the software, although this may not actually be the problem.

More likely to be an intermittant failure of some component on the induction side, EGR, MAF, Lamda etc. the light throttle openings under motorway driving conditions suggest overleaning while the knock sensor is continually correcting it. It could be that your mean throttle openings on the M6 were higher due to gradient/traffic, therefore no problem.

[chromedome]

Had something similar on a Mondeo.

 

If you've got air con, get the compressor checked.

 

On mine the compressor was seizing and every time it cut in felt like someone had attached a caravan to the back of the car :D

 

Try driving with air con off and see if the problem goes.