Odd complaint from the wife.  

Since temp got down below fifty, complaining that car doesnt start and
run properly when parked in lot at her work, it’s on a slight incline but
not much.  And exposed to wind. Makes no diff which direction she parks
car.
– but starting it in morning in driveway, has no problems.

It’s a little long in tooth, needs plugs {by miles since last} and new
fuel pump (getting ‘whiny’)
And of course will check/replace the obvious…

But has anyone else had this apparent ‘cold-blooded’ or ‘wind-chill’
reaction???
… funny since the temp this AM when she started out was 15 deg colder
than just now when she called and complained.

–
Yeh, I’m a Krusty old Geezer, putting up with my ‘smartass’ is the price
you pay..DEAL with it!

I had this problem before and I cleaned what I believe to be the contacts,
but when stopped, and ignition off the interior lights will not shut off,
and I disconnected the battery. What door sensor might be the culprit? What
the best way to diagnose the problem?

Thank you

I thought I would run this by you all, it could happen to you.

I have a 94 Escort LX wagon with 70 K + on it. It belongs to my elderly
mother, and I’m not around much to do the maintainence. I’ve been
worried about the timing belt, but the manual lists no replacement
mileage, so I breezed past 60 K thinking I was all right. It’s a
Florida car, but what happened was I was up north with it, and it got
very cold very quickly overnight, and the serpentine belt shredded into
three parts, with lots of banging. So I pulled over and removed most of
the obvious pieces of the belt. I shut down all the electrics and
started it again, and a another piece of that belt whipped around and
snaked up into a gap between the timing belt cover and the block, and
snapped the timing belt. If I had been more attentive, I could have
crawled under the car and removed most if not all of the remaining
shredded pieces before I tried starting it. Be forewarned.

When I tore it down, the timing belt was in very good shape (except for
being catastrophically snapped). This is the first time I’ve done this
job, so the questions I have are : the gears are quite a bit larger
than the width of the belt, does it matter where exactly the timing
belt should be centered on the gears? The old belt was slightly off
center towards the block, but if it is off center one way or the other
too much, could that cause premature or excessive wear on the new belt?
I’m out in the boonies and I don’t have proper access to my tools here,
so how important is exact torque on the tensioner and pulley bolts? Can
I estimate these things, or should I just go out a buy a cheap torque
wrench?

Stupid questions I know, but I can’t afford to have this happen again
with my disabled mother in the car, when it’s freezing cold out there,
or on the wide open highway.

Just trying to dot my i and cross my t.

I am looking for a "decent" console for my Aerostar and have been looking at
he usual auto accessories places. Most of them are either poorly designed or
the plastic is so flimsy that they look like they will break before long.

Others have specialized compartments (like for CD, coins, tissue, etc) and
they’re not much good for anything else.

Does anyone make a plain old big box with a lid that flips forward for using
as a clipboard?  I saw one – www.smittybiltinc.com was on the box – but the
lid is only supported on one side and looks like it will break off after a
fair amount of use.

Right now I’m using a cardboard box, and if it had a flip-top lid, I would
settle for it.

Fred

my number 3 cyl. has blown the sparkplug any ideas?