Picked up a 94 850 non-turbo wagon a few weeks ago for my son for chump change. Story is that the previous owner had it at a shop for some issue, the shop apparently never got around to doing anything with it for 2 years and the owner by that time had replaced it, so he literally gave it with a signed title to the owner of a German auto repair shop to do with as they pleased. German shop replaced the cat that was stolen while it sat at the other shop, and did a little bit of fiddling, but really didn't have the time/space to keep it around long enough so he sold it for peanuts. Car is in pretty good shape, 160-some thousand miles. Anyway, I figured for how little I paid, if I spent that much again into getting it back on the road it would be a bargain. The German shop stated that it would start reluctantly but absolutely didn't want to run unless you revved it, but it did get a bit less cranky if you stayed at it long enough to get it warmed up. I was able to do just that at their shop, so I knew it wasn't kaput. It's pretty damn loud exhaust leak somewhere. German shop couldn't say much more other than they suspected an EGR issue. New one from RockAuto is nearly what I paid for the car, so I'm hoping it's something else.
Got it home and have done a little poking and prodding. Drained the tank, replaced fuel filter, put in a couple of gallons of fresh gas with methyl dry-gas and half a bottle of Techron concentrate. I've replaced the plugs, they had a good bit of carbon and the tops of the pistons look like 120-grit black oxide sandpaper. I sprayed a bunch of Seafoam in through the plug holes and let it sit overnight hoping to get rid of that, no dice. Plug wires were original, replaced with a used set that look near new. Cheap, but I'm trying to keep this on a shoestring budget, at least until I have things narrowed down. I know all cylinders are firing, as each runner on the exhaust manifold gets hot after it runs for a few seconds
Symptoms are...
- It will crank and fire with some initial reluctance, but dies immediately unless you give it gas. It will start to rev and once it gets above 3000 it revs strong, but still wants to choke down again after a couple of seconds even with foot still on the throttle. Releasing and mashing the throttle a time or two will get it to rev again, and repeat.
- After a bit of this, as it warms, it will hold a strong 3000 RPM or so without apparent issue, but the lower you go the more it wants to die off again. Eventually once the temp is up enough, you can hold about 1500 RPM smoothly, anything less it struggles, and of course it will die if you let off.
- The only code I've gotten from it was for the MAF, and snagged one from a pick-and-pull and no more code, but then it refuses start at all. It will give just one cough after about 2-3 seconds of cranking but nothing. Try again, another cough, repeat. No attempt to "run" like it would with the bad MAF. No new codes logged. Disconnecting the MAF connector returns to the previous behavior and throws the MAF code again.
Long story short, car went to shop with unspecified problem, spent 2 years not getting fix, found its way to another shop that didn't spend much time with it before selling it to me. Starts and runs reluctantly. Only code was MAF, swapped and now no code but it doesn't want to start anymore. It would run with the bad MAF (and still behaves the same with MAF disconnected.
Anyone have some ideas on where to focus?
Thanks everyone!
Brent
