My wife's troublesome 245

[Tim McNamara]

My wife bought a 1993 245 a couple years ago which has been basically a
lemon (I had bad feelings about this car and tried to talk her out of
it, to no avail. Anyways...):

The check engine light came on a couple of weeks ago. Simultaneously it
needed a new battery during the severe cold weather spell we had and, of
course, in that process the codes in the system were cleared and the
check engine light went out. It's come back on. Checking the codes
this morning, in socket #3 I get 2-3-2 and 1-1-3; in socket #6 I get
1-1-1. In both cases the codes indicate that the fuel mixture is too
lean or too rich.

Another clue is that this car runs terribly at idle when the air
temperature is cold. The idle lopes, rushing up and dropping back down.
My guess is that the cold start valve is futzed just based on the
behavior of the car. Would that cause these codes? The fuel pressure
regulator was replaced last winter or perhaps the winter before due to
the idle problem, but it didn't fix it- it of course went to the
mechanic on a warm day. I replaced the AMM and the airbox thermostat
last summer.

Any suggestions that you all might have are appreciated.

 

[Gary Heston]

My wife bought a 1993 245 a couple years ago which has been basically a
lemon (I had bad feelings about this car and tried to talk her out of
it, to no avail. Anyways...):

The check engine light came on a couple of weeks ago. Simultaneously it
needed a new battery during the severe cold weather spell we had and, of
course, in that process the codes in the system were cleared and the
check engine light went out. It's come back on. Checking the codes
this morning, in socket #3 I get 2-3-2 and 1-1-3; in socket #6 I get
1-1-1. In both cases the codes indicate that the fuel mixture is too
lean or too rich.

No idea on the exact cause of those codes, but the problem sounds like
that could be caused by a bad O2 sensor.

Another clue is that this car runs terribly at idle when the air
temperature is cold. The idle lopes, rushing up and dropping back down.

[ ... ]

Are you hearing a whistling noise under the hood? Possible vacuum leak.


Gary

 

[Tim McNamara]

No idea on the exact cause of those codes, but the problem sounds
like that could be caused by a bad O2 sensor.

Is there a way to test this?

Another clue is that this car runs terribly at idle when the air
temperature is cold. The idle lopes, rushing up and dropping back
down.

[ ... ]

Are you hearing a whistling noise under the hood? Possible vacuum
leak.

Hmm, that's not something I've noticed but an interesting possibility.