1994 Taurus misfiring and brake problems

The other day I sprung a coolant leak on one of those steel lines near the heater hoses. I repaired the line, but upon restarting the car is misfiring horribly and the brake pedal is extremely stiff and wont wont stop the car well at all. I have also noticed some smoke comming from the bottom of the engine adjacent to the firewall. I have never had a problem with any of this before the leak. Any suggestions? This is a 94 3.0L. Thanks in advance

Some coolant may have gotton on the wires and plugs causing the misfire. Is there a possibility you have a vacuum hose off or split going to the booster?

My thoughts:

*make sure no collant/liquid is in the spark plug holes, this is a common problem with misfiring. If there is, blow it out with compressed air or dab dry it with a paper towel w/o removing the sparkplugs
*Braking is stiff... maybe the power booster gone out?
*Possibly the stiff breaking is related to the smoke, check to see if the master cylinder is leaking brake fluid out of the back, or check if your fluid level is decreasing

That's about all I got. Hope something turns out for you!

[edit: dag, way2cool beat me to it! :) )

It appears everything was a result of a vacuum hose that became disconected up by the firewall drivers side. I plugged it back in while the car was running and BAM everything idled out perfectly and smooth as before. Brakes also nice and powerful as before, and no more smoke from under the engine. i knew whatever it was it was causing all the problems as all this happened at once. I cant thank you enough for your replies and suggestions to an idiot whos about as mechanically inclined as a gorilla. I had been pulling fuses, checking wires, etc, thinking it had to be electrically related with the coolant getting on everything, but both you guys were right on the money. Thanks again for taking the time to help and, to whomever created this message board, i am also indebted to you. Keep up the good work!

Daryl

Awesome. That's exactly what it sounded like.

If you are still going to check out this thread: Although it sounds like your car still ran without the hose attached, I would recommend that you find some way to secure it to whatever it was plugged into, assuming whatever it is isn't really hot. Because chances are it will work its way apart again.

alright to me it sounds like it is time for a tune up and engine clean. With your engine running rough you will have lower than average vacum, and with you brakes running off of vacum sounds to me just time for a tune up and cheak the injectors. keep us posted