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Problem didn't reoccur till January 2013 (nearly 6 months). Now it has happened 5 times in 2 months. Three of the 5 times, it has been during the day (living in hot Florida) after a short drive, stopping for 5-10 minutes and then restarting. Always lets me drive a couple/few hundred feet before stalling. Two other times it happened after being parked at work for 6-8 hours. Waiting 70 to 90 minutes, trying every 15-20 minutes has gotten me back on the road each time.
Happened again today, after a 1.5 mile drive, and being in store for 10 minutes. That was 15 days since the last occurrence, which has almost identical symptoms. Already replaced the fuel pump relay and thought the problem was solved, but it reoccurred after 10 days. I am prepared to bring the car to a Ford dealer and probably get the fuel pump replaced (I am really strapped for cash, otherwise I would replace this otherwise great running car). But after reading some of these posts, not sure if that will be a long term solution. The grounding issue is interesting. Anything else, like these mentioned diodes (not sure if that's in my 2002) or a fuel pressure regulator, that would cause such an intermittent problem. I "definitely" get no sound when I turn the key to on and the car won't start. As soon as I turn to On and hear the hum, I know it will start fine. Has never happened when I leave for work in the morning for the past two years. Has never stalled on the road while driving. Only as described above. Not really prepared to put the car up on jacks. When I was 25, that was a possibility, but at 57 not ready for anything like that. Still seems like an electrical problem to me.
hi gsc, I have nothing against DIY approach; and only happy to know when someone was lucky enough with guessing a part and then lucky again when installing replacement correctly, the first time. But in the same real world you have mentioned, this is funny how rarely really it works to just guess right the first time; in fact, most of car's problems would be unique and guesses wrong, ending up with higher repair cost in the end.
Yes, the check valves in pumps designed to hold pressure on the fuel rail and lines could be leaking; but also pumps' electric motors can lock up after running and then sitting; and if the hose connecting the pump to the fuel sender is leaking, replacing only the pump (not the whole assembly) won't help, and that needs another check. We don't even know if the simple cycling the key on/off helped dcarp3 make any difference. So far, it could as well be the battery (even if recently bought, its output has to be checked), or say an engine timing problem, or a throttle plate sticking in bore overnight due to varnish build-up over this car's years from PCV gasses; or even leaking injectors flooding the air-fuel mixture (hold your gas foot to the floor to interrupt injection command and let the mixture lean out until the engine manages to start, if so). Also how about wiring harness issues, loose ignition connectors or oxidised pins problems, or automatic shut-off powered from PCM or the notorious antitheft systems from aftermarket.. :confuse:
Sure thing- if we did know how to diagnose (before buying a new pump) that the pump check valve drcarp mentioned is faulty, that would be great. Alas, we don't know. The techs have tools and training to do it without dropping the tank -- surely you do not to have to pay for the new part and the replacement as yet; and diagnosing it could cost even less than an hourly labor rate (~$80 in my area).. Worse yet, buying a cheap pump would very likely require another replacement in less than a year. Judging by standard replacement pump's pricing from for example RockAuto -- http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1362811,parttype,6256 -- this Taurus'es new pump assembly would cost over $130. So maybe it's worth making sure diagnosis is correct before buying new costly parts..
Hey everyone...read this! I've been trying to diagnose the same problem..same symptoms for over a year on my girlfriends 2001 Taurus. The last post by Ralph80 is the solution. Don't go buy or spend money or time with replacing the fuel pump until you run a separate ground from your fuel pump module as he did..or assuming from his description that is basically what he did. Two independent Ford mechanics on their own, did numerous tests on the fuel system of these cars and both came to this same conclusion. Here's why. the fuel system on these cars is different than most. Asking your friend who is or mechanic or getting advise from even the dealership is a waste of time. It does not apply here and is a vehicle specific issue and one that is not the norm for this situation...which is why there are so many posts about this problem with no definitive solution. In my girlfriends car, this issue had been going on for so long that now I suspect even more peripheral problems ie....over charging of the battery which is killing them as well....or drawing more amps from the battery and causing them to run low and die prematurely. This is still a hunch...... but basically what is happening is a bad or poor ground at the back end of the electrical system that runs the fuel pump, relay and inertia switch. Its a closed system but in short......the bad ground is causing heat in the fuel pump or related valving electrical components ( which will draw more amps or try to from the charging system...alternator.....voltage regulator...and on down the line ) so when you stop after driving for a short time....the overheated part (fuel pump module or related component) doesn't work until it has time to cool, which is why waiting for a while then going back will usually restart as is it should......as well as in my girlfriends car...seems to happen more often on hotter days than cooler ones. However....this does not mean that your fuel pump is not compromised just because you fix the source by adding a new ground. The repeated over heating has probably not be good on the fuel pump and module even if it still works for now. I'm holding my breath to see if the fuel pump might go out anyway. But this also explains why so many people are going to the dealerships and replacing the pumps just to have them fail again. No offense to any REAL dealership mechanics out there but my experience is that they are good at replacing parts and not so good at diagnostics. Old school guys used to repair and rebuild cars and because of that, new a million tricks and causes for just about every situation you could imagine simply because they had to tear things down and look inside to actually discover where and why things fail..dealerships make money on both ends by selling you and installing new parts.
I will post later if I have any more to add. I wish someone like myself had posted this earlier but I hope this helps someone else not have to go through the same process I did. FYI: I didn't rip into my girlfriends gas tank yet in hopes that I could find a solution....The ground seemed to do the trick.
Follow up to my last post....the Ford Mechanic(s) I referred to actually ran a new (separate) ground wire directly from the fuel pump module at the tank to the floor behind the rear seat with a through screw in the sheet metal. This is what I did but I tapped into the ground wire at the first location I could get to it without dropping the gas tank****
Today I decided to cover as many bases as I could with this ground issue and found every ground point in the trunk area and behind the rear seat as I could and ran them all into my new ground point in the floor pan just behind the seat. I looked up the schematics and found 3 ground wires. One green/yellow from what believe is the drivers side control module and two others ( solid black ) that come in from the passengers side in the trunk harness that are tied together.....a total of two factory ground locations. This makes a total of 3 new ground wires coming into my new ground screw....one from the pump sender module, one coming in or out ? of the drivers side module and one coming from the two black harness grounds. I think this about covers all the available grounds. I'll post anything new if there is anything that comes from this.
Update on ground wire install.......In my previous post I stated that I had initially tapped the first available ground from the harness coming from the top of the fuel tank. This appears to have been redundant after finally finding a full schematic for a 2001 Taurus SES. The systems on these cars and their location appear to be all over the map from year to year so it was hard to pinpoint specific wires. What I finally figured out is that the ground wires that appear to be the main target in resolving this issue were located on the right side of the trunk screwed into the inner fender well. On the left side in about the same location was a green/black wire coming out of the harness that is also a ground. I'm not 100% sure on this but this one according to the wiring schematics is associated with the power antenna circuit and would be less likely to have anything to do with the issue we're discussing. All the main ground wires show as either black or black/white on the diagram throughout the entire electrical system. Anyway...the three black grounds on the right hand trunk side appear to all be associated with the fuel system and as I stated earlier.......I ran an auxiliary wire from that point forward to the floor just under the rear seat. I ran one from the left side to the same point as well just for good measure. The first wire I ran from the harness was actually on the same run going to the rear right ground screw so it wasn't really necessary .....overkill in this case shouldn't hurt. I will post later with anything new