Ive noticed over the past month or so poorer fuel economy, even worse than usual and I started noticing the HVAC losing vacuum (going to defrost) During heavy throttle uphill climbs in OD.
I scrolled over to long term fuel trim readouts on my Scangauge and saw around +10% at idle. That isnt enough to cause a code, but when I tuned the car it was around 3% at idle. So I knew there was a leak, albeit a small one.
I went over everything yesterday. Plugged this line, and that line. Finally ended up pulling the whole engine vacuum harness off while the engine was running and plugging the barb into the intake.
Pretty quickly short term trim went -7% to -10%, essentially eliminating the highish long term trim that was in effect.
Except that only lasted about a minute and it was right back to where it was.
Shelved it and got some brake cleaner today. Got home from work and started hosing all the connections and hoses down. Noticed I would reliably get the short term trims to blip if I sprayed in certain areas around the intake plenum. I tightened hose barb fittings. Put clamps on hoses. But still registering it occasionally.
Finally figured out I was hitting the egr valve when I got those little blips. So I concentrated on that and I found the issue.
$37 later, I have a new motorcraft EGR valve coming from Amazon. Should be here Thursday.
I scrolled over to long term fuel trim readouts on my Scangauge and saw around +10% at idle. That isnt enough to cause a code, but when I tuned the car it was around 3% at idle. So I knew there was a leak, albeit a small one.
I went over everything yesterday. Plugged this line, and that line. Finally ended up pulling the whole engine vacuum harness off while the engine was running and plugging the barb into the intake.
Pretty quickly short term trim went -7% to -10%, essentially eliminating the highish long term trim that was in effect.
Except that only lasted about a minute and it was right back to where it was.
Shelved it and got some brake cleaner today. Got home from work and started hosing all the connections and hoses down. Noticed I would reliably get the short term trims to blip if I sprayed in certain areas around the intake plenum. I tightened hose barb fittings. Put clamps on hoses. But still registering it occasionally.
Finally figured out I was hitting the egr valve when I got those little blips. So I concentrated on that and I found the issue.
$37 later, I have a new motorcraft EGR valve coming from Amazon. Should be here Thursday.