Mares Motorsports

Well. My fantastic day all started with finding out the 95 5.0L GT I was going to buy ended up being a stolen car (I knew it was too good to be true) so I instead spent my money and bought what I believed to be a decent 96 GT with the 4.6L and auto transmission.

I took it for a drive, was easy on it because the owner rode with me.
As soon as I owned the car, I'll admit I opened it up a little bit on the freeway (Nothing extreme, about 3/4 throttle up to 85)

It seemed fine when I test drove the thing. Now it's nothing but problems.

The car bucks like none other now, even under casual driving. I hit the freeway, set cruise at 65 and it jerks and lurches, check engine comes on, goes off, comes on, starts flashing, goes back to just on, turns off, back on, etc.
And of all things, I shut the engine off at a gas station to pop the hood, nothing seems to look wrong. all the spark plug wires are on tight on both ends. I shut the hood, get in, I see a faint but obvious white smoke coming from under the hood. The second I open the hood...nothing. no smoke. I can smell oil burning, but I can't see any oil anywhere on the heads, oil pan, anywhere. It's rediculous.

At this point I know I got ripped off, and I have a bill of sale in my hand that we both signed and it states that I purchased the car in as is condition so there's no way to take it back and ask for a refund (it ain't like I bought from walmart)

I'm hoping it's just bad spark plugs for the bucking problem, so I'll have to head back to my local NAPA to buy some new ones tomorrow morning. And the oil on the dipstick is PITCH BLACK which I knew I would have to change tomorrow (went ahead and bought some royal purple tonight on the way home). I'll have to check in the morning to see if it smells burnt. But any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if it could be a head gasket or valve seals. This car has me baffled to tell you the truth.

And sorry to sound like a newb, but I've never had a car with a check engine flash at me...I'm guessing it's probably something pretty serious. Or is it just to show me that the check engine light is on?? Like obviously I couldn't see it on the first time?

Also. I'll check in the morning again, but whenever the car bucks it feels like the transmission knocks on the floor. I'd guess either a broken tranny mount or it's loose, but has anyone experienced anything like that?

If you've read this far thanks. I'm sorry for such a long post, but I'm not too happy with the heap sitting in my driveway. I'd like to get this car figured out within a short time as I hoped of retiring my cummins as a DD so I can rebuild the motor and TT it. But from the looks of things I may end up having to rebuild the 4.6 in my newest project.

Rokgtar

Greetings. I would go to your closest Autozone or any parts store that can tap into your ODB-II and tell you what code(s) are causing the check engine light to come on. Once you know what is causing the CEL to come on you can deal with the bucking/running bad situation. As for the clunk - get under the car and check to see if anything is loose (suspension, motor mount broken, etc...). Mine had a clunk that turned out to be a loose upper control arm in the rear. Tightening it fixed the issue until I can replace them. Good luck!

BraMas

Flashing CEL means misfire. So a tuneup would be a good start. Don't forget to get a fuel filter also

Frostbitten

dont sue him just yet. it might be a simple issue to fix

ct_white_stang

+1 on the above. Sounds like your new found car just needs a little TLC...Make sure you find out which cylinder is misfiring as well you could need new coilpacks...Do need drive around with a flashing check engine light either.

Quick99

+1 On the coil packs and spark plugs.

Z28KLR

Only having the codes pulled will tell for sure, but in addition to the above suggestions, my knee-jerk reaction to the symptoms as described makes me wonder about the TPS.

Buying a car and finding black sludge in place of oil is a scary and discouraging thing; now you know just how well the car was maintained and cared for. That clunking sounds like it may either be a broken trans or engine mount.

01MGGT

I had almost the same problems when I bought my 96 back in the day. I changed plugs oil cleaned maf and other stuff including all filters and it was still there. Was working on it one night in the dark and noticed when I had it running one plug wire was arching. The brand new looking ford racing wires were bad. Changed them and had nothing but fun after that...well till the ball joint broke pulling into a parking lot...fail lol

swarthyfellow

My vote it bad wires.... or a bad wire lead connection. Simple to check, either one by one or get the OBD-II reading. Just get an ohm meter, the longest wire shouldn't be more than about 15-20K ohms and if the leads look dirty... well they are. New plugs wires are usually a good idea on high mileage car anyway. Good luck

RON 95ZR1

Sounds like a simple spark plug/wire change is needed. That's always the first thing I do to any car I purchase used. Remember to add the fuel filter like someone else noted.