Place your guesses!!!

[tylerdurden2816]

What's wrong with my car this time?!?! Here's the background to make an educated guess. 03 Marauder, 140K miles on the body, engine swapped by someone who was lazy or working too fast (brackets not put back, wires not harnessed right, etc.) at 128K with a donor engine from Florida with 42K miles on it. Engine gets full synthetic oil changes every 3k miles, I don't race it, haven't modified it, don't even drive it hard. I've had an evap and a lean on bank one code that I haven't gotten around to yet. Saturday on the highway doin maybe 70 the O/D OFF light comes on. Car RPMS jump, I pull over over terrified that I've lost another timing chain, but the car moves on it's own. tough to get moving from a stop, maybe first gear isn't working. Car also def doesn't seem to be shifting out of 2nd maybe? I made it to work (Ford Dealer) doing 40 MPH all the way there at about 3000 RPM's.

This has happened before and it was a bundle of wires that got frayed because they had been carelessly left d***** over my steering column by my engine swapper. This feels the same, but since that problem was fixed by a great trans shop, I can't imagine the same problem happening again.

Well, you've got all the history, time to place your guesses!

[fastblackmerc]

What's wrong with my car this time?!?! Here's the background to make an educated guess. 03 Marauder, 140K miles on the body, engine swapped by someone who was lazy or working too fast (brackets not put back, wires not harnessed right, etc.) at 128K with a donor engine from Florida with 42K miles on it. Engine gets full synthetic oil changes every 3k miles, I don't race it, haven't modified it, don't even drive it hard. I've had an evap and a lean on bank one code that I haven't gotten around to yet. Saturday on the highway doin maybe 70 the O/D OFF light comes on. Car RPMS jump, I pull over over terrified that I've lost another timing chain, but the car moves on it's own. tough to get moving from a stop, maybe first gear isn't working. Car also def doesn't seem to be shifting out of 2nd maybe? I made it to work (Ford Dealer) doing 40 MPH all the way there at about 3000 RPM's.

This has happened before and it was a bundle of wires that got frayed because they had been carelessly left d***** over my steering column by my engine swapper. This feels the same, but since that problem was fixed by a great trans shop, I can't imagine the same problem happening again.

Well, you've got all the history, time to place your guesses!

Tranny issues.....

[fastblackmerc]

Check the tranny fluid level and see if the fluid is burnt.

[tylerdurden2816]

It is the only major component I haven't had to replace yet, so why the F*** not, right? Hope you're wrong, I am way too broke for that.

[tylerdurden2816]

It's in my dealership's shop, I dropped it off Saturday as soon as I made it in. I'm not sure how many miles ago it was, but since I bought it at 102K(?) miles I have had the trans fluid and filter changed, and the guys there said everything looked great then. I'm sure a lot can happen in 40k miles but it would be a shame to go from no problem to dead so fast.

[tylerdurden2816]

So since its in the shop I guess what I'm saying is I can't check anything. But I will say my car hasn't been dripping any fluids on the driveway if that helps people hypothesize.

[Comin' in Hot]

The same thing happened to me on my first marauder I'm going to guess chafed wires.

[stevengerard]

sounds like a trans issue - the light also goes on when the trans temp gets high. Did it start to blink first or just turn on and stay on.

[tylerdurden2816]

Well like I said, that's been the problem once before, and I assume once it's fixed, my legit mechanic would set it up to not happen again. Possibly the same problem due to different wires getting worn down?

[RF Overlord]

Welcome to owning a used specialty car that most people don't know how to maintain. Once you get all the bugs worked out, it should last a long time with proper maintenance.

Please let us know what the dealer says...

[tylerdurden2816]

sounds like a trans issue - the light also goes on when the trans temp gets high. Did it start to blink first or just turn on and stay on.

Came on solid and stayed on solid if I recall correctly. Pretty sure solid on, start till drop off at the shop.

[tylerdurden2816]

OK, so the official diagnosis is a short. Somewhere. A 15Amp fuse was blown, replaced it and all is good. The new problem is finding the short. Apparently it can be any number of wiring harnesses, solenoids or sensors to blame. And that's the good news! They also found an 8% disparity in power in cylinder 7 from all the others. Just diagnosing that little number is another probably 2 shop hours. And it's potentially a ticking time bomb to blowing a second engine...