Shudder, loss of power, during acceleration

[wanttokeepit]

I have a 99 Ford escord with 153K miles, manual transmission. Recently, during acceleration in second and third gear, the car "shudders", and accelerates very poorly. Eventually, by pressing down on the gas, the car pulls through. The car works fine at high speeds, where the shudder does not occur. Generally, the shuddering becomes more pronounced the longer it has been driven, although it is unpredictable. Tends to happen on hills. When the loss of power occurs, there is a distinct clicking coming from beneath the hood.

The car has new spark plugs, wires, battery and alternator.

Any ideas?

[JackB]

I've heard of a similer complaint. It tends to happen when the car has been driven for a long time and is warmed up nicely. Unfortunately I don;t have a solution for you but if there is someone out there with a fix, i would be happy to hear from them to0.

[Ethanb64]

If you are finding that there is a loss of power but the engine is still revving, or indeed revving quite high then it could be clutch slip due to a worn clutch or oil on clutch plate (an oil seal gone somewhere).

What's it like for using/losing oil ?

[wanttokeepit]

I took the 99 Ford Escort to the dealer. He told me the seat valve is coming apart from the head. I talked to my brother in law, also a mechanic. He said the Ford mechanicwould have no way of knowing without pulling off the head. Any thoughts?

[w_poet]

Hi,

I have a very similar problem. I have a 1991 Escort, automatic, 1.9 L. The engine shudders or hops whenever I'm accelerating between 30 mph and 40 mph. The problem seems to be more noticeable when the engine is cold. I recently replaced the timing belt, alternator, battery, and spark plugs. Has anyone had any success with this problem? I've seen a couple of references to this problem on the Internet but no definite solutions.

For example, there's a suggestion here to look at the valve body and/or TCC solenoid:
Ford Escort Car Repair Questions and Answers

Does this seem right? Any ideas?

Thanks

[96grape]

I have a 96 1.9 that would loose power on a labored accel up a hill and would knock like crazy for 10-20 seconds and then recover. Went on for 3-4 months and tried several things. Finally died with a loud banging after stopping for a short period. Pulled it apart and found that it had dropped a valve seat which destroys the head and luckily only slightly nicked the piston face. In the process of putting on a new head and cleaning up the mess left behind.
Was told to make sure and clean out the intake manifold as there will pieces of the seat in there and will get sucked back into the engine on the first start up.

[91EGT]

check your rear engine mount... a buddy had the same problem with a newly swapped 1.8BP into his 323.... the car would shudder when he punched it.. and not really do anything.. but at normal speeds once the car got upto speed.. it would be fine..

I'd do all of the above mentioned by everyone.. but i'd also check my engine mount...
his was gone... and the engine was rocking too much while under high load.