Well, I hope that I don't get crucified for 'allowing' this to happen, but I felt the need to update you all on this Taurus.

I stated that I refuse to load the parts cannon on vehicles that I cannot fix. I don't consider myself to be remarkably 'special', by either definition of that term, and I am not too proud to admit defeat. But, when I came back to work the next morning, the parts cannon had already been pre-loaded for me, with a remanufactured MAF sensor.

Apparently, my boss and the customer decided together that we would follow a "diagnose through treatment" strategy, kind of a Dr. House type of thing. I was instructed to install it and recheck, which I did. I made sure that I got at least two freeway on-ramps under its belt to update the BARO PID, then performed a manual-mode ASM 5015. The live scan data looked just as bad as before (stuck rich), but the 5-gas numbers were significantly better! I let it idle for at least three or four minutes, then ran the official test.

I am utterly convinced that this vehicle is not controlling fuel properly (at least during ASM), but the results are hard to ignore:

[1998 Ford Taurus LX, Emissions Infrared Data]

I hope that my flame suit is up for the abuse!

Sincerely,

Michael Barry
Technician
Quick Stop Smog & More
Sacramento, California, USA

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