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240 Won't go up hills

Hoggster

Hoggster

New member
Joined
Jan 15, 2003
Location
NC
I'm working on a '93 240 wagon, automatic transmission. The owner's complaint is that it won't go up hills and knocks.

I got in it and it feels sluggish and low on HP. It also spark knocks when you load it up. It had codes for the ECT and AMM burn off. It does go up hills but you have to give it a lot of throttle. The temp gauge reads a little low, but that could be the compensator board or a cooler thermostat.

I put an new ECT sensor and used AMM in it and it didn't change. I also checked the cam timing, which was fine, and the spark timing, which was 15* at idle. The codes didn't come back after 30 minutes of driving.

I also changed the air filter because it was filthy. I put new plugs/wires/cap/rotor on it about six months ago.

I ran out of time to work on it today but tomorrow I'm going to check fuel pressure. Do you guys have any ideas of what else I should look at?
 
It feels like it's blowing a decent amount when I put my hand near the tailpipe. It blew a lot of steam during the cold months though.
 
Spark plug wires are alright? Did you look at them while the car is running at night? Also the right size wires? That tends to make more of a miss though.
 
Unusual code, AMM burn off, I think. Guess if this car came to me, I'd have done what you did with regard to the AMM swap, and next I'd be sure someone (or a water leak) did not mess with its ECU. The burn off occurs during a delay timed by the ECU holding in the system portion of the fuel relay after ignition is turned off.

So, ECU or FI relay and associated wiring. Late prod 93 has the fuses on the battery post - a trouble spot. Early prod uses wiring through the cabin/FI harness connector to fuse 6 in the panel - an even more troublesome spot.

I'll bet you can scare up another fuel ECU to quickly swap in for grins.
 
It is not clear if your car is NA or T. T's use a knock sensor, i am not sure about the NA models, does your car use a knock sensor? (Intake side, in mid shortblock under the intake, near the head.)
EZK has a routine that continuously tries to advance the ignition up to the point of pinging, this should be picked up by the knock sensor and that input signal is used by the EZK to pull out some degrees of advance.
This way the engine always uses as much advance as possible without pinging.
BUT when the knock sensor is faulty or broken the EZK might be advancing to much all the time (do you have errorcodes in the EZK error log?)

if you decide to replace the knocksensor make sure you tighten it to spec, no tighter.
 
Janspeed said:
It is not clear if your car is NA or T. T's use a knock sensor, i am not sure about the NA models, does your car use a knock sensor? (Intake side, in mid shortblock under the intake, near the head.)
EZK has a routine that continuously tries to advance the ignition up to the point of pinging, this should be picked up by the knock sensor and that input signal is used by the EZK to pull out some degrees of advance.
This way the engine always uses as much advance as possible without pinging.
BUT when the knock sensor is faulty or broken the EZK might be advancing to much all the time (do you have errorcodes in the EZK error log?)

if you decide to replace the knocksensor make sure you tighten it to spec, no tighter.
Click to expand...


'86+ 240 is always N/A and all 2,4 cars have knock sensors.
 
I have this issue too with my 940. I used 93octane and it got worse. I went down to 89octane and it got a little better. My guess is it's the cat not working properly and it's clogged so the backpressure is not being burned and forced out the muffler by the cat and is being pushed back up the manifold towards the engine almost making it die. I would say, change the cat because that is where MOST power loss is accumilated. if your plugs, wires, cap/rotor are all fine, I would suspect the cat. they are cheap for my 940($115) online so I'm sure you can fine one for the 240 around the same price. good luck and tell us how it goes. I will report mine when I put in the new catalytic converter.. These cars are old with 200K average miles so the cat can take a severe beating and never be suspected until it starts to rattle. but it can be clogged long before the rattling sound.
 
I don't hear the cat rattling, but I'm going to pull the O2S and see if it runs better with a hole upstream of the cat. That would explain the excessive steam in the winter time too. I'm going to go out and work on it in a little while.

I worked on a CRV a while ago that had a plugged cat and wouldn't run until I pulled the F02S.
 
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Hoggster said:
Pinging. It sounds like marbles in a can or like a diesel engine.
Click to expand...

Marbles in a can sounds like the muffler is getting clogged by a cat breaking up. Ask me how I know. It was intermittent for a while, until it got really bad and the car started acting as you described. Low power, wouldn't make it up hills.
 
sowsley said:
Marbles in a can sounds like the muffler is getting clogged by a cat breaking up. Ask me how I know. It was intermittent for a while, until it got really bad and the car started acting as you described. Low power, wouldn't make it up hills.
Click to expand...

Its definitely spark knock. That was the best way I could describe what that sounds like.
 
Have you taken the time to check to make sure the rear, and or front brake calipers do not have very badly sticking pistons. ?

Stuck caliper pistons make for poor performance up the hills.....and will put the engine under a very heavy load, likely causing excessive spark knocking.
 
I had a '91 with very similar symptoms and it ended up being the intank pump. I swore it was a clogged cat though since it had literally every symptom of one.
 
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