Originally posted by 96mystiquezetec:
Symptoms:perfomance deteriorated. WILL NOT REDLINE. If engine is cold it has trouble going over 4000 RPMS.
What to do?:I called my local ford dealerships, and told them what was up and they said timing belt is probably needing to be changed. my car has 75000 miles on it so yeah maybe they are right. But I was looking at my Haynes manual and it says that ignition timing is under control of the PCM-and is not adjustable. So would this not make anything FORD says about the timing belt causing the symptons incorrect?? I bought a timing light but the haynes manual says its useless because timing may vary constantly at idle speed. What to do?????! 
SMILE LITTLE FISHIE I just fixed what you went thru. I made a post of it....think I called it "the car is back" in the general forum....anyway those are the same symptoms I was having. At that mileage, probably wouldn't hurt to have the belt replaced as a preventative. Mine did jump a tooth on the exhaust cam so that was no good, I also had a seized idler pulley in there BUT when all was said and done and they replaced the belt, it DID NOT fix the problem. Replacing the MAF sensor did fix it and brought back A LOT of power. So, all you may want to do is replace that first. It was about 90 bucks at AutoZone with a $60 dollar core so do like I did and bring your tools to replace it in the parking lot right there. But again, having 75k on the car, it probably would not be a bad idea to do both!
Any further questions? Here is the email addy
sosaudio1@mchsi.com Good Luck
L8R
Rich
