yamichi
New CEG'er
Background- My friend is moving to dubai and giving me his 99 contour (base model i4) for el cheapo. He's not moving for a couple months yet and his check engine light is on. I go for a ride with him yesterday to see what's up with the car and in first gear it lugs HARD... 0-60 in about 45 seconds, no exaggeration. Once it's in second it seems to be alright. He says his mileage has gone down quite a bit also. He said it started when another friend of ours changed the spark plugs. He seated the plugs and wires and the car wouldn't start. Took them out, re-seated everything and tried again and it started but it's had this problem ever since (about two weeks). CEL is on so we took it to an auto parts store, they scanned it and it spit out two things- code 1383 and emissions status yellow.
I'm not worried about the emission status thing yet but everything I can find online says that code means cams over-retarded. That makes sense for the poor power, bad emissions, and craptastic mpg. So my question is- how does one go about fixing this? I googled a fair bit and found something about a VCT (but it's also a pricey part from what I found) and it doesn't make sense that changing the plugs would mess something up like the timing control.
So any help would be appreciated. I'm new to Fords but not to cars. I spent a lot of time working on my old saturn and I tinker with my supra any chance I get. I've got most tools on hand and most info. I'll be buying a chilton's manual shortly but any quick input would be great as right now the car is somewhat unsafe and sounds like it's gonna die.
Thanks in advance, y'all.
Edit- Pulled a forum noob move and didn't search first. Found a thread about this code and three people said "Check the VCT plug"
Any pictures or pointers as to where this plug is? Is it somewhere that it might get knocked around by a klutz doing spark plugs?
I'm not worried about the emission status thing yet but everything I can find online says that code means cams over-retarded. That makes sense for the poor power, bad emissions, and craptastic mpg. So my question is- how does one go about fixing this? I googled a fair bit and found something about a VCT (but it's also a pricey part from what I found) and it doesn't make sense that changing the plugs would mess something up like the timing control.
So any help would be appreciated. I'm new to Fords but not to cars. I spent a lot of time working on my old saturn and I tinker with my supra any chance I get. I've got most tools on hand and most info. I'll be buying a chilton's manual shortly but any quick input would be great as right now the car is somewhat unsafe and sounds like it's gonna die.
Thanks in advance, y'all.
Edit- Pulled a forum noob move and didn't search first. Found a thread about this code and three people said "Check the VCT plug"
Any pictures or pointers as to where this plug is? Is it somewhere that it might get knocked around by a klutz doing spark plugs?