The POSSESSED Probe - Halloween Special (Part 1) 

Ever notice the only light and buzzer that never fails is the seatbelt reminder.

This is a fun one! That buzzer is because the airbag light not working. Old Fords do that. I'm familiar with Miatas and they use Ford airbag modules. Lots of people put on after market steering wheels and don't disable the airbag module. I'm also suspecting bad capacitors in multiple modules. The last 90s Fords and Mazdas I've worked on all needed some module repairs. Pretty simple and cheap.

I actually enjoy working on these older cars. Yeah, scan data on newer cars sure does make diagnostics easier. But cars like this has FAR less components to check and I feel that's much easier to work with.

I used to have an 89 GT Turbo, very fun car. Had it for almost 2 years before I realized it had a hidden tray under the passenger's seat. Air intake boots are near impossible to find. Mine had dry rotted and started to break, with the gaps in the boot the car constantly wanted to die, had to finesse the gas while stopped. Finally, after not being able to find a replacement, I rigged a new one with a pvc shoulder and dryer duct. Every now and then it would blow the duct off and I would have to cut a new piece.

Very cool watching it blink out diagnostic codes with a test light! I’d read about that, but never seen it in real life until now.

Neat little town, thanks for sharing Dustin.

Probe gt 94 owner here for last 29 yrs since new.. daily driver and my Only driver LOL. You check the codes on these OBD1 dinosaurs by grounding the Ten and Gnd connectors in that diagnostic connector under hood and it should show the code flashes with the check engine lite in dash... Ive always been envious of those with OBD2 systems becuz of all the advanced data they can acess that I cannot.. ur right, these old systems actually require You to have Alot of mechanical knowledge and Intuition to get to the bottom of issues..its not like todays cars that Tell the mechanic whtas ailing them.. these cars are old School and your mechanic skill need be the same...mine runs well, no codes but its just weak and its been like that for longer than I can remember..maybe its just becuz its old and im at mild altitude...good luck, im enjoying the video alot!

As long as it runs long enough to get to the nearest scrap dealing i'd be happy !! Your patience is quickly becoming legendary

Customer leaves plenty of fuel in the tank for Ivan to do his stuff - not! So thoughtful. I’m guessing the old trick of disabling the MIL before sale was done here. Skills there from Ivan for wiring up his own

you shaking the kill switch got me bruh XD

those probe got into the crusher fast for a reason

Ah yes…the Mazda-based Mustang replacement that should have never been. You should have started with an exorcism!

I owned one of these back in the day. I actually never had any problems with it...which was a miracle. I agree the interior was a plastic nightmare.

Ain’t no way to undo 20 years of shade tree work in 2,3 ….10 videos. I’ve enjoyed the comments. Haven’t thought about a Tempo/Topaz in years. Now I’ll have nightmares. We were lucky to fix a lot of those problems back in the 70-90’s as we transitioned to more electronics without the tools, training and information that’s out there today. Glad I can sit in my recliner and watch rather than tear the hell out of my hands in all those tight places.

Fascinating, in a true Halloween horrifying manner. That car is a Ford PITA, full of ghosts and active gremlins. I sense you're gonna sweat Ivan 🙂 Can't wait for Part 2 - should be horrendous 🙂

It wouldn't surprise me if the throttle is not returning all the way to the idle position thus the throttle switch always indicates an off idle condition. Saw many fords that had misadjusted throttles with this issue. It'll be interesting to see part 2 of the diagnosis and repair. Seeing the flashes from the check engine light brought back many memories of these early 80's and 90 Ford vehicles. Some good, some bad. The Probe was supposed to be the replacement for the Mustang. Sure glad that that didn't happen!!!!

5 Minutes in & I say this car has many more miles than 70,000. I think somebody changed out the Instrument Cluster & HERE WE GOOOOOO.

Can't wait for the reveal! I'd be checking for bad grounds on an older car like that.

Ivan Great video - thank you. This brings back memories. My late wife had a 93 Probe GT 5-speed that she bought used with 9K miles in 1994. Had it until 2001. Pretty good car. Paul (in MA)

Smack the inertia switch with your hand or screwdriver handle. It works with sharp blows, not shaking. I used to love hitting the inertia sensor on my friends cars when they weren't looking and then watch as their car wouldn't start. Grounding and counting is bringing back fun EEC-IV memories, for real. I had a little box set up with a switch to ground and a light to count with. Learned a ton on how all the sensors work by learning the ins and outs of the EEC-IV. 99% of the sensor still work the same today!

I really enjoy your thought process as your look for clues, plus we learn a thing or two about automotive electronics. Nice work!

my father had one of these back in the day, he bought it used and spent thousands repairing the nightmare electrics.. haha

Hi Ivan, I don't know if anyone helped you out with the code reading or not, but here's the way I remember reading them from days gone by. Codes as I understand them 9 FAST flashes = Engine Coolant Temperature 1 SLOW Flash = "next code is" 5 FAST flashes = Knock sensor 1 SLOW Flash = "next code is" 7 FAST flashes = Crankshaft Position Sensor 2 2 SLOW Flashes = NOT SURE - Could mean switching to ANOTHER MODULE (Transmission Control Module?) 3 FAST flashes = Cylinder Identification Sensor? - BUT which module you are getting codes from 2 SLOW Flashes = NOT SURE - Could mean switching to ANOTHER MODULE (Transmission Control Module?) 4 FAST flashes = Crankshaft Position Sensor 1? -BUT which module you are getting codes from 4 SLOW Flashes = Should mean that the code results are completed. Long time viewer, first time commenting. Best wishes with this. Kindly, Cloud

That OBDI is spooky.

The Trip Odo say's 911. Kinda say's it all! Send the car ambulance (Ivan) quick!

I forgot how much I hated working on anything made between the introduction of EGR valves and OBD2.

Ah, the bad ol' days of the arcane rituals to pull codes from pre-ODB2 systems. Getting flashbacks here from last year's Thanksgiving Mercedes!

Welcome to my world. I have an 86 Ford Crown Vic (EEC-IV) and my wife has an 89 Ford Probe (MECS-II). Both are pre-OBD II. At least I didn't have to buy a scan tool, just need some wire and an analog voltmeter to read the codes (for the Crown Vic -- no MIL). I was amazed you got the plastic pieces off in one piece. Any time I touch something plastic inside my wife's Probe it shatters -- cheap plastic plus years of being parked in the hot sun every day.

Intake vacuum could be pulling the butterfly closed just a little more, bringing your voltage down by 0.1V when the engine is running.

I watch all of your videos and really enjoy watching how you go about diagnosing the malfunctions you have on the vehicles you are working on.i am in no way a automotive mechanic and quite frankly,I wouldn't want to be one.I did ,however, work as a helicopter and later on an engine and fuel systems mechanic on the C-130 aircraft and as a plane captain/ crewchief on the CH-46 helicopter while in the Marine Corps.I can honestly say,that working on aviation type vehicles,it's far easier than working on a car,especially the newer autos.Keep the videos coming! Very interesting stuff.

As an old school tech muddling through OBD 1 days and the old red brick was fun and fascinating . Grounding those connectors to get codes was standard practice.

OMG I remember a shipmate of mine bought one of these back in 1996 and he was racing it around because the salesman told him it was a sports car. 😂

Ole my ! I remember those days of pre OBD 2 days. It was a pain .I hated the feedback carbs of the 80s. Proud I'm retired now. After 40 plus years. I still fix my own stuff. Your a awesome tech. I sure enjoy watching you and Paul Danner. When you get time check out weber auto his hybrid videos are awesome. Have a great Thanksgiving.

2:10, this seems like a perfect car for STUNTMAN 😂

Love the lack of Fuel showing on the Fuel Gauge ... I hope you got some in your garage ... :)

Oh that brings back memories for all the 80s and 90s Mercedes I owned having to count flash codes. Looks like someone has meddled in the dash removing bulbs and mixing them up. I guess putting the check engine light bulb and throwing it away used to be a common practice.

Stopped at 1:25. Looked up ford probe on Wikipedia and had an 'aha!' Moment. I am very familiar with this platform since i worked on a LOT of mazdas back in the day with this engine. This could be interesting 😊

With EECIII in early '80s, you triggered code readout by putting vacuum on the Baro sensor. After you did, the engine computer would go through a test sequence and spit out codes by pulsing the TAB/TAD solenoids...you could listen to pulses in the tailpipe(If the engine could actually run) or by putting a test light on those solenoids. Realize that older machinery was actually more difficult to work on that machines of modern day. Wish you were there. I was.

I remember the earlier days when cars didn't have any way to tell you what was wrong. It seemed like a luxury when they came up with the blinking engine light.

I remember, when I purchased a new 1993 Ford Probe GT, it was one of the most fun cars I've ever driven! It had a manual transmission, and the interior looked a lot better than that one. That must've been some stripped-down version, because it doesn't even have the rear spoiler, LOL! If I had the money, I'd LOVE to find a decent example, and have it refurbished to factory, but it would be really hard to find one, and nearly impossible to refurbish, because Ford dropped the line like a hot potato beck in the day. I guess I'll just have to keep my fond memories of the car Ford should've kept...

Was so happy when OBD2 came out

I started as a tech in 1997. How well I remember all the cars that had no scan data or very little scan data. Back then, it was common to have mid 80's cars in pretty often. I believe that it made me a much better tech by forcing you to learn how the components and systems work. Codes were of very little help and you certainly couldn't just pull a code and throw a part at it and have any reasonable chance for success. I don't miss working on them. Haven't seen a Ford Probe in I don't know how long and hope I never see another one in the shop! Great flashback video Ivan!

I don't really have the time to watch this but experience with Probes...water leaks destroying wiring front to back. Get a water leak in the right front and it would wick it's way back to the rear. I'm probably wrong but that has been my experience with Probes of that era. And haha, on we go. Remember there was no internet back then and the instant wiring diagrams were not readily available by a simple touch of a pen. Yes, cars and the like are far easier to work on now than they were 20 + years ago. I don't think most under40 y/o realize that. Go back to the 80's(50 y/o+ tech) to have some real fun. When they worked right, they still didn't work well.

OBD1 ahh the good old days, what an absolute jungle they were

Very nicely done.

Thank you Ivan for another great learning experience. :)

I think you should carve the outline of the Probe in a 🎃, looking forward to Part 2, could there be more?

Ivan, I have a code reader that will work on that probes diagnostic port under the hood. 😞 😂😂😂

One of the greatest escapes of my life was back at 1994 I was comparing a probe GT with a Honda prelude SI.. I wound up getting the SI and driving it for 14 years. I sure wish I had kept that car, shame they're all riced out now.

As a fan of Ford’s, and being a tech back in the 90’s, this is one car that ford should have unmade. It was garbage from the start

Great vid makes you really appreciate scan tools of today . I had some strange idle issue on a 2001 maxima vq30de engine. It needed a idle air volume relearn procedure (something specific to that year maxima )

22 minutes , i'm calling it. someone swapped a wrong relay in.

I remember getting a Probe-lem as a rental car in the early to mid 1990s and just like this one, it had a very harsh shifting transmission despite being new and very low mileage. Hmmm.

I bought a 93 ford probe GT standard shift 6 cylinder Mazda engine. My favorite car I ever owned and I’ve owned over 40 different vehicles.

Man, I've got one for you Ivan. Even Honda can't figure it out. Passport just shuts off while driving once a day. No codes thrown. Techs drove it with scanner hooked up, it died, no codes. Honda Engineers have no idea.

Oh wow. This is not something I expected when I work up this morning. I remember as a kid in the 90's the Ford Probe was not an entirely uncommon sight on the roads here in England. Someone I went to junior school with her dad drove one. These days - very rare. Its funny looking at one of these - it reminds me a lot of my dads 1995 Ford Mondeo although the Mondeo interior was a little nicer. Something of this era I'd almost be a little stuck without any live data to look at.

Those battery cables are a setup for disaster with positive being a black cable (and negative being red). 😬

I think that car has a story to tell,,,,,,, 70000 miles?

"Super Star II Mode" LOL!!!

You are very brave taking this one on, most people would run away, you could spend hours getting no where and then the customer may refuse your bill. Yes the car looks good, but the internals are beyond repair, crappy old plastic that breaks as soon as you touch it.

Years ago, on vacation in Colorado, my 1992 DSM throttle position switch failed sending me barreling through traffic. Back home,, I threw a VOM on the windshield and watched the varying resistance across the contacts as I pumped the accelerator. Also, on an old car like this, save yourself some trouble, pull the counsel and replace all the bulbs.

Ivan the ghost buster.

My old Nissan has a place in the chilton manual that instructs the tech to remove the "sensor" bulb after 80000 miles. The codes are extracted by pressing a button on the ECM. There's red/green LEDs that do that part.

Makes me appreciate how mechanical based my 92 Cummins is and I bypassed the pcm as the truck is so simple so I feel as if it is not needed along with the Mil

This is where and when the parts cannon was developed!

Wow, talk about a FORD classic!! The Probe was so cool in the day. But, like all OLD classics, the diagnosis is suspect and down the rabbit hole we go!! haha Merci

The Fall foliage is awesome.

That car had the same running gear as the Mazda MX-6. It was built at Flat Rock, Michigan. It was supposed to replace the Mustang; there was a letter writing campaign and the Probe got axed instead of the Mustang. I think the reason that car doesn't have an "overdrive off" light is because it doesn't HAVE overdrive. The Tempo/Topaz didn't have overdrive, that late either. (They were made until 1994 as well. Great video!

Still wondering what's up with the Fuel Cutoff light and the dash lights not showing. Good one Ivan!

Place your bets folks, will Ivan find missing bulbs in the instrument panel in part 2 or part 3? Hmmm 🤔

I actually have an OTC *Monitor* scan tool (cartridge based) that can talk and do EEC self tests on these old Ford's

switch in rear must remain up right at at all times an bolted in if not fuel pump cuts off a hard bump will turn it off

lol, when I started out, 1980+, yup we counted the flashes for codes. No scanners. Dwell meters and a test light.

i used to build those junks at the flat rock assembly plant in michigan

Toyota had that switch in the early 90's trucks. I know cause we had several of those trucks and one would not idle right. That TPS was adjustable but this one truck had a bad TPS. Since I had just gone to some aftermarket training, ordered the part, installed and adjusted the TPS so the switch worked as designed and the truck ran great. Thanks to Mitchell training and the training book that went with the course with the specs for adjusting that TPS. It looks like the TPS on that Ford has a bad switch. It might be adjustable.

Nice like always...but, please buy one Milwaukee under hood light...

That accelerator voltage peaked my interest when it broke the 700mv value , ooow dodgy lol. But thats got bugger all to do with the mad dash displays, im sure that car is drunk :-D.

These were actually fun back in the day, especially if it had a stick.

First, I'd ask the customer if they are a "proctologist", just to see if the rumor is true. Then, I'd suspect a bad ground because "crazy lights" frequently means "crazy grounds".

Killer title for the Halloween holidays!

I was wondering if you could used your picoscope hooked to the temp test engine light to give you spikes on the time line that you could then read as fault codes. Also wondered if your Snap-on with the connector could read the codes once you shorted out the pins to get it to throw up the codes. But very impressed how you diagnosed this older vehicle

My shop has a customer with one of these Probe GTs with the Mazda V6...Ivan...you have no idea how badly I want to park it down the street and toss a Molotov Cocktail into it and run...just one big pile of shit!

One my favorite cars in the 90s...

Ooooooow Spooky, Gremlins?! 🎃😂

any thing with those tilt headlights.......RUN ........ CRAP on 4 wheels

The lack of lamps working including oil and charging is suspect. I would check for the presence of bulbs in the cluster - at least on the malfunction indicator.

my first car when i was 18 years old was a 1994 ford probe the possessed kind ....... i was new to working on cars i was told it needed a water pump and that was all ...... but after the water pump repair the car never started .... then i need my 84 year old grandpa to help ..... the car was out of timing so we got a new belt and tensioner did the job it fired right up then we set the ignition time i was so excited .... took it for a small drive.... came back home shut it off ...... few hours later went to start it again it was a crank no start .... the car was out of time again the exhaust camshaft had jumped a few teeth ....... took it to a few shops none of them could figure it out...... heres me at 36 years old now that car had a bent valves on the exhaust side .... you live and learn .... sold the car long before i became a gear head... wish i would of kept it ...... best part was i sold the car to a mechanic or so he said he was he ended up scrapping the car because he could not figure it out either lol

gotta love doing diagnostic morris code. don't miss that at all. obd2 so much nicer. even better today. still does not replace diagnostic skills though.

Probes are born Possessed!!!

Friend had a car like that 20 years ago, and even back then, the interior squeaked and rattled worse than anything else I have ever encountered.

I forgot to add, unplug the instrument cluster and see what happens.

Ivan I can't believe you didn't realize the fuel cut out light was for the inertia switch to let you know that it was triggered and why the car wasn't starting lol

Probe : notorious for wiring harness issues underneath the radiator

My son had one ... the interior like this one was falling apart , I swear every wire connector was corroded ....even the interior ones ... it was such a pain to get everything working , we just sold it ...

My old AutoXray 6000 scanner still works very well on the older OBD I vehicles.

Try removing the battery positive cable for awhile to reset the computer. One guy had several problems at once and did that and it fixed the problem. It was a Chrysler PT Cruiser.

I'm guessing either the check engine light was on for years and eventually the bulb burnt out, or someone just pulled the bulb out of the cluster along with a bunch of other warning lights. They really should have switched to LEDs for those long before they did..

Even the trip is at "911".

Spooky. Look behind you...................................................

The plastics sound like the stuff you get in assorted biscuit boxes. I wonder why they called them probe.😁😁