Hot days and possible tranny problems - wont accelerate of traffic lights - help?

[tommydantheman]

My knowledge is fairly limited, though this forum did help me replace rear bearing seals as I had leaks from rear differential and hope it can help again.
Essentially, I put my foot on the pedal, and after a few seconds it may catch and accelerate or sputter and stall out. If it does catch, it catches hard and takes of and usually will keep moving till the next traffic light. When this issue comes up, idling is very rough and an indicator that I am about to have problems. I am convinced day temperatures bring this problem up.
First time happened a year ago and led to me replacing the tranny. I was driving long distance in the heat and noticed the car would seem to lose speed though pedal was down and then suddenly catch and accelerate again. I had been driving 4 hours and ended up stalling out near St. Louis. The more work the car did, the worse the situation got till I managed to pull over to a motel. Mechanics there though it was an idle arm controller problem, replaced it, and the same thing happened an hour from the mechanics, again in the heat. Bringing it back to them the next day, they refilled my tranny fluid and I was able to drive the car 4 hours home without incident. This led me to believe i had a tranny problem and had a rebuilt tranny put in. I have since drove the car from Indiana to Las Vegas.
8 months later and Vegas heat is intense. Today, driving home from work, the car stalled out at a traffic light. Restarted car, put in gear and pressed pedal, car would sorta sputter then eventually catch and drive. This went on the whole way home. All signals indicate the exact same problem as before but I cannot afford to replace the transmission again and now wonder if this all has to do with outside temperatures, today has been the hottest temps the car has ever had to deal with. I checked the transmission fluid and it is a good red color and the levels seem to be right. Front adn rear differentials leak, pinion seal leak, so those levels could be low, but these were at good levels when same problems turned up a year ago.
Im trying to give as much info as i can and hope somebody can help. Has anyone experienced similar?

 

[my98nnj]

The transmission won't cause the engine to sputter or misfire upon take off.
Does the check engine light come on when this happens? Have you tried to scan for any stored or pending error codes immediately after this happens?

 

[tommydantheman]

Thank you for the response. I brought it to the dealership just before this started happening (again) and got these codes:
air bag light - b1994, cicuit failure,
Check Engine light is and has always been on - p0174 lean codes p0442 evap leak.
A mechanic friend I mentioned it to wondered did I have a vacuum leak, is that the evap leak?

 

[tommydantheman]

I also think I may have misused "sputter" its not quite a sputter, and as I have driven the car since in the evenings, I am still wondering if high heat could provide hint at something. Both times this has happened, I had been driving 80mph+ on the hottest days of the year.

 

[2000StreetRod]

weak fuel pump?

Your symptoms are similar to other posts describing heat related performance issues. Do your symptoms occur more often when the fuel tank level is low? The less fuel in the tank on a hot day the warmer the fuel. The fuel pump is cooled by the fuel flowing thru it. If the pump is weak and the fuel is hot the pressure drops. Has the fuel filter ever been replaced? If not, or it's been more than 50K miles since replacement, I suggest starting with that.

 

[tommydantheman]

Thank you again. No, my fuel tank was not particularly low, although I do tend to let it get low and have not changed the fuel filter

 

[1992fordgreen]

Thank you for the response. I brought it to the dealership just before this started happening (again) and got these codes:
air bag light - b1994, cicuit failure,
Check Engine light is and has always been on - p0174 lean codes p0442 evap leak.
A mechanic friend I mentioned it to wondered did I have a vacuum leak, is that the evap leak?

p0442 is nothing to worry about and wont cause issues at all (besides passing CALI emissions) p0442 is due to either a bad gas cap or (most likely) an evap hose ring gasket that has withered or rotted away. Part is less than 40 bucks on Amazon.

 

[shadowless127]

Clean your IAC, MAF, change fuel filter, then see where you are at.

It sounds like either a air or fuel delivery problem.

 

[tommydantheman]

p0442 is definitely my bad gas cap. Thank you for all responses, Ive had to relocate to Ireland for a few months so havent been able to get on to the forum. Before I left I managed to make a recording of how the car acts up in this situation. It is parked in my driveway and you can hear the heaving of the engine and the dials jump a little bit with each heave, had I tried to put my foot on the accelerator, it would have taken 4 or 5 seconds to catch and go. Ill be back in the US in October so am hoping to have it worked out by the time I get there with a view to maybe fixing it and selling it. See if this video can illustrate the problem Ive been speaking of, again it was a hot day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgUhxDucJ00

 

[gdgiordano]

Check your air filter too. I know it's trivial but can be a big deal. If all the above fails have you done plugs/wires?

 

[tommydantheman]

Ill give the filter a look, just got back to the states so should have a chance to give that a check, wouldnt know how to look at plugs and wires, but maybe that should have came up at the Ford garage?

 

[gdgiordano]

Ill give the filter a look, just got back to the states so should have a chance to give that a check, wouldnt know how to look at plugs and wires, but maybe that should have came up at the Ford garage?

Eh those guys arnt always that bright.

 

[tommydantheman]

might well have been the fuel filter

Your symptoms are similar to other posts describing heat related performance issues. Do your symptoms occur more often when the fuel tank level is low? The less fuel in the tank on a hot day the warmer the fuel. The fuel pump is cooled by the fuel flowing thru it. If the pump is weak and the fuel is hot the pressure drops. Has the fuel filter ever been replaced? If not, or it's been more than 50K miles since replacement, I suggest starting with that.

Now back in Vegas. The heat is not quite what it was when I had left, more hitting early 90's every day. However, I went ahead and changed the fuel filter. I've tried driving it pretty hard for an hour at the hottest part of the day and....so far so good. Not even a hint. Im not sure if the weather just aint hot enough to bring up the same problem, but the fuel filter was a mess. If this has been the source of the problem all along, could I have done damage to the fuel pump? This forum has been great.

 

[2000StreetRod]

no proof

I have no proof but it seems reasonable that a restrictive fuel filter will shorter the life of the fuel pump. As I recall Ford recommends replacing the filter every 30K miles. I suspect my 2000 filter was the original one when I purchased my Sport in 2009 with about 150K miles.

Have you ever tried breathing thru a straw?

 

[gdgiordano]

I have no proof but it seems reasonable that a restrictive fuel filter will shorter the life of the fuel pump. As I recall Ford recommends replacing the filter every 30K miles. I suspect my 2000 filter was the original one when I purchased my Sport in 2009 with about 150K miles.
View attachment 80446
Have you ever tried breathing thru a straw?

It's possible pumps are designed for certain resistances. If you run it in a system with more resistance than it can handle I could see it being bad. I can't say for sure but I like the theory as well.

 

[RomeovilleIL]

A hot or overheating engine will behave like you described.

What does the temp gauge do when this is happening?

Do you have anything on the front of the truck that might block the radiator such as a custom bumper or winch?

Have you checked the radiator fluid levels?

Have you checked the clutch fan?

Might sound silly, but try pressure washing out the radiator fins as well since dust or dirt can plug up the gaps and keep the radiator from cooling properly.