HI Just bought this car a month ago- AT , 1.9, 47000 orig. miles .Car ran super on test drive . A few days later ,began idling rough -thought car might have been sitting for awhile cuz was used as a winter car . Boyfriend , who is mech.,changed plugs and wires - no better . He then changed fuel filter , cleaned EGR valve and throttle body, ran fuel injector cleaner thru intake manifold (?) to engine - a little better . Very sluggish on low speeds - hard to get up hills, but once on highway , runs good at 50 or above . Smells of gas on starting at times . Checked compression, vac and fuel pressures - all good . No codes show in engine . Suspected timing belt had jumped . A few days ago , it made a god awful noise and started shaking to make my teeth chatter . Drove it a few miles to his shop - timing belt had slipped quite a bit . He replaced belt - no better . He rechecked it many times to make sure set right - no better . He replaced a fuel injector after testing -put new plugs on again even though all looked fine and had spark ( as did the originals but a cheap fix ) . He is stumped what the problem can be -esp. since no codes show and all tests prove good . I know this is a non interference engine . If a valve or seal or piston was damaged , wouldn't it show up in a compression test ? Any suggestions short of replacing one piece at a time ? :confused: THis is so frustrating for a car with such low mileage. BTW _ he did say it looked like someone had been playing with the timing belt before because some screws seemed to be tampered with tbut I thought they might have gotten screwed up when it slipped . Car no running on three cylinders - afraid it will get worse , so now I have no car but the old 86 Buick in my driveway which I took off the road when I bought this - it actually runs so I may have to put that back on for awhile .

Service Engine Soon light came on the 1997 Thunderbird 3.8 engine with 31,000 miles. Owners manual says check emission. Anyone have an idea how I can check emissions? Ya'll have helped me with my Aerostar know you will be able to with this one. Thanks for your help Deltadudey2k:confused: