seems like my z’s smoothness went out the window. i have a nasty vibration now from the engine at idle thats actually hurting my hands. its not consistent, its on ocassion. the car only has 45K miles, and i did a tune-up recently. I’vew driven a few other Zs and escorts, some of them are milky smooth, some are worse than mine.
anyone have a cure?
generally ford recommends the replacement of the mounts or the radiator upper mounts, but is the engine idling smoothly, or erratticaly did you do a compression check…
engine is smooth, compression is good and even. like i said, its a low-mileage engine, runs excellent, its just OCASSIONALLY i get a vibration, especially at the wheel.
i was also considering the mounts since i read a TSB on it…
mounts only vibrate in forward or reverse gears, not neutral or park…id do the checks for resistance on your coil pack.
Check your elbow’s on your PCV line for leaks. They are prone to splitting. You might want to check your battery to ground wire for a good ground and maybe add another ground wire or two to your engine.
I’ve added a ground from my battery to my coil pack bracket. Smoothed my car out a bunch.
Sorry to ressurect this, but I noticed that my idle is rougher than when I’m at around 1,500 to 3,000 RPM. It’s not the type of rough vibration that is erratic and changing, it’s just that at idle it’s… rougher than when cruising. Of course, the vibration is crazy at wide open throttle… I just didn’t expect it to be less smooth than cruising when it’s at idle. Is this normal?
ZX2’s are known for having a rough idle. There are things that may help and infact I believe this may have been a technical service bulletin put out by Ford, note this was not a return for service.
Jayco, is that the only things we should check for? My Z idles semi rough, and I’d like to lessen it even more.
Cool then, as long as it’s normal, I’m glad. I like the rougher idle, because it makes it seem like there’s a “beast” under the hood. It adds like 20+ psychological horsepower.
LOL
I had really rough idle when I got my 03 in back in january. I replaced the plugs, replaced the plug wires with 9mm FR wires and the coil pack with an MSD. No more rough idle and greatly reduced vibration.
I purchased an SCTx2 and set the idle at 1k, no more rough idle.
Good God man! That chip is awsome. Once I upgrade my tires and a few more engine things I so need a SCT.