Intermittent crank/no start issue

[Matt Allen]

First off – thanks to ETCG for some great videos! I’m a 30 year veteran of the IT industry and I used to work on cars in HS but always relied on others that knew more than I. With 2 kids in college, I now have four cars to maintain and I find doing the work rewarding and fun, and certainly cheaper than paying others. Thanks to the great vids from ETCG I have the necessary confidence to better understand my car’s systems and lunge forward with my home style maintenance and repairs in my own driveway. I even asked for an impact wrench for Christmas, I have a feeling it’ll get opened this weekend however!

To Eric – you’re not charging enough for your premium membership but then again the low price was a no-brainer for me so I signed up right away.

Now on to my problem. My son has a 2002 Ford Taurus v6 LE with about 268k miles. The engine was actually replaced before I bought the car ($300) so it’s not original motor. With more frequency, he is having an issue where he will go to start the car and it’ll crank but it won’t ignite. Last month his battery died, I had it tested at AutoZone, confirmed bad, and replaced it under warranty from Wal*Mart, it was only about 15 months old. After putting in new battery, the car wouldn’t start. It cranked just fine. Came back the next day, car started right up. This failure repeated itself two days ago. Then again last night he had the same thing happen, but after a no-start, he shut off ignition, waited several minutes, then it started right up, so in that case he did not have to wait several hours or next day. I have noticed during these incidents, I cannot smell fuel near the engine compartment, no flooding, no gas whatsoever which seems odd to me. Also I cannot hear the fuel pump but that is true even when it is working, I think is near the rear passenger seat. I also placed my ear on the fuel filler and couldn’t hear the pump go on, or off. Again this is true whetheer the car starts, or not. It seems to me if the intermittent problem was a fuel filter, or fuel pump, it wouldn’t be intermittent. Also, if it was an inertia sensor switch, that would stay off until reset, not be intermittent. Do you guys think I might have a bad fuel pump relay? How could I check that if it’s intermittent? Thinking maybe I should just replace that and see if it helps. Because it’s so intermittent, I’m not sure what to test. I did get a Fuel Pump pressure tester from AutoZone (on loan) but heck, I can’t even locate the schrader valve on the fuel rail. Even if I could, the car is starting now so there is no failure to test for. Lastly, I do have an ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth adapter and I’ve loaded up several apps on my smartphone but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and of course there are no error codes or CEL or MIL to check. I’m at a loss about what to look at now.

I apologize for the long thread, but wanted to provide detail so you could assist. Thank you in advance for your time and suggestions.

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

Like any no start, you need to cover the basics. I go over those here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-no-start-problems

Hopefully that will get you started. Good luck and keep us posted.

[John Hugon]

What engine do you have 2 valve or 4 valve?….(Duratec 4 valve… Vulcan 2 valve)

[Matt Allen]

Thank you for those that replied. Yesterday, the intermittent problem caused failure again, which was good so that I could diagnose it. I finally found the schrader valve on the fuel rail. I did connect the fuel pressure gauge and it showed zero pressure at ignition on. I also monitored with a few different apps on my Android smart phone. I also verified spark, so I concluded it was a fuel pump. I spent the day yesterday dropping the tank and replacing the entire pump assembly. Of course some of that time involved reviewing again some of Eric’s helpful videos. BTW – great suggestion on the pocket screwdriver to pry into old ‘sealed’ hoses. That was probably the most challenging part of the project, as Eric had stated in his video. Also, I ran into some unique connectors which I had to research for disconnection best practices as I didn’t want to break them, specifically the one connecting the fuel line filter in from a Y connector on the tank. After some research I figured out all I had to do was simply squeeze the connector ends but since that’s been there for almost 300,000 miles and it was in a difficult position, it was a challenge. It was nothing that a pair of channel locks and some patient persistence couldn’t overcome. BTW – another useful tip from Eric, be patient and take your time!
Here is what I was trying to disconnect

This is what it looks like finally disconnected

Also, reviewing Eric’s video of replacing just the pump (vs. the entire pump assembly) on the 99 Taurus, which apparently had a different connection type, made me decide to just purchase the entire assembly. I figured that way if there was anything else wrong with the pump assembly, it would be replaced, it was also faster IMHO and I knew I would run out of daylight during the replacement.
Pics of old pump and new pump and the tank with a lot of crud on it.

Of course I also replaced the filter. Had my son help me put the tank back in the underbelly after he got off work, another great tip Eric, get someone to HELP put it back! We put everything back together, did 4 or 5 ignition on sequences to prime the pump. Man you could really hear that thing unlike ever before. Anyway, cranked the car over and voila, started on first time.

Thanks again for the replies and to Eric for a great site and YouTube channel.

Attachments:

• Connector-001.jpg
• Connector-002.jpg
• DisconnectedYConnectiontoFuelFilter-001.jpg
• NewPump-001.jpg
• GasTank-001.jpg
• OldPump-001.jpg

[Author]

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