95 Town Car acting up

[White Lincoln]

Hi all,
(note: I asking on this site because a lot of you have the same engine / tranny as my Town Car and may have had the same issues)

Yesterday my battery died on my 95 Town Car. I put a battery charger on it, added some distilled water to the cells that were low and waited till the battery was charging at less than 3 amps, it started at 6 amps. The car started and drove just fine after I charged the battery.

Today, I drove to Lowe's and on the way the car was running real rough, shifting real crappy and over all acting up. First chance I got I turned around and drove home.

I ran codes and have no codes at all. I reset the code reader and tried again, same. I disconnected the battery, waited some 2-3 minutes and hooked it back up. Car started and still ran like crap.

Did a coil pack go bad? Not sure what the heck happened and since I have no codes, I am SOL.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Kenz]

From what I gather it sounds like you are leaning towards an ignition issue, or it's missing badly. The coil packs on the 4.6s very rarely if ever go bad. Maybe check over wires to make sure nothing came lose, happened to my thunderbird once and it drove like crap until I found a lose plug wire.

You can also try unplugging one sensor at a time like MAF/IAC and see if it changes anything when it throws the computer into default value mode. Easy thing to do and somewhere to start.

 

[theterminator93]

What's the voltage when running?

 

[White Lincoln]

You can also try unplugging one sensor at a time like MAF/IAC

DING, DING, DING, DING!!!!!

I have to apologize to you all. That evening, Sunday, I was farting around with the MAF sensor and seeing it was the same as the Cougar's (which it is not) and inverably left it disconnected.

 

[White Lincoln]

What's the voltage when running?

I ran tests while charging, while off, while running, etc, etc. I charged the battery to 12.7 volts and it was 14.3 volts at idle.

 

[Kenz]

Glad you got it going. Always nice when it is an easy fix!

 

[White Lincoln]

Glad you got it going. Always nice when it is an easy fix!

Yep, I love the "stupid is as stupid does" fixes...

 

[White Lincoln]

Well, that did not last long. After I wrote the post above, I had to "revive" the battery in the Town Car two more times. I went to drive the Town Car to an appointment yesterday and "click, click, click", I was not taking the Town Car again. I figured the 3 year battery in the Town Car lasted almost 5 years, it should be good for an honest 3 years. Off to Wally Mart at 7 am when they open and got me a new battery. Had the car pulled up to the door so I would not have to drag the heavy arse thing across the parking lot. Guy walking up to the store asked if that was my car and I said 'yes' and responded "that is a really nice car!". I was screaming inside "I KNOW!!!" LOL That makes 3 batteries that have crapped out in the last month. Two from my UPS backups and one from the Town Car. Now both cars have new batteries, life is sane again.

 

[Grog6]

Since you have new batteries, try this: every 3 months,charge overnight, then add water. This is called an equalizing charge. Car systems charge enough to start tomorrow; that's it they don't do much. For a ups, put a 100w lamp on it, and run it down once a month. exercising them is good.