Been lurking round this forum for a long time and always thought my first post would be Mustang related, but I have more pressing problems at the moment.
2003 Ford Taurus OHV Engine
This morning driving to school I was accelerating from the toll plaza, pushed it a little hard, and noticed that the engine sputtered and cut out, but never stalled. Happened again when I was pushing it to merge onto the highway. When I got to school, I put it in park and revved the Engine to about 3000 RPM and held it there. After a 2-3 seconds it began to sputter, and finally stalled out completely. Tried to restart it, but it didn't want to start. cycled power a few times to build fuel pressure, and tried again and it started no problem. After class, on the way home, it just kept getting consistently worse, so that it even stalled several times trying to maintain speed up several longish hills. Bought a fuel filter on the way home and replaced it once I got home. No problems replacing the filter, but when I tried to start it again, it won't start. Disconnected the fuel line from the fuel rail on the engine and cycled power and there is good fuel flow out of the fuel line. reconnected the line and cranked the engine over, and it fired, ran for a second, sputtered, and stalled. cycle power, still won't start again. If I give it a shot of ether it will fire, but it won't run without it. I can hear the pump running and sounds no different than usual.
DTC: P0320 Ignition Engine Speed input circuit performance. I suspect this is just because of the stalling and sudden drops in RPM when it stutters that it is causing readings out of its tolerance, but feel free to tell me otherwise.
I reset the code right before I replaced the filter, and it came back when it started briefly when I pulled the fuel line from the rail.
According to the scan tool's "snapshot" there is 39 PSI @ 1036 RPM in the fuel rail, but I don't have the tool to check it for myself.
Connecting a fuel pressure gauge directly to the rail will tell you if the pump is indeed healthy.
Here's something to try: Locate and unplug the MAF meter. Start the car. If it runs, either the meter is bad, the wiring is bad, or there's an obstruction in the small air diverter tube that directs a small sampling of air into the meter. If there's an obstruction (a leaf fragment for example), the meter reads very little air, and the computer uses the data to calculate a small amount of fuel to match it.
The meter should also be removed and the sensing wires carefully cleaned once a year or so as maintainance.
This happened to my van, and a friend's SUV.
John
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66 2+2 C Code Auto. 52K miles.
Something quite different coming eventually.
now sandblasted and DP40'd since this pic was taken.
a two legged hole shot, even with a munged up carb and snow tires...
Well, I've pretty much narrowed it down to the injectors are either seriously clogged, or not opening for one reason or another. There is plenty of fuel and pressure at the rail, but somehow it isn't getting through the rail. Either the computer isn't opening the injectors, or they are plugged up, I suspect the former simply because it went from running fine to not running at all in a matter of hours, and I can't imagine that all 6 injectors stopped working at the same time. Probably going to have a shop take a look at it tomorrow. Thanks for the help guys!
Either the computer isn't opening the injectors, or they are plugged up, I suspect the former simply because it went from running fine to not running at all in a matter of hours, and I can't imagine that all 6 injectors stopped working at the same time.
Did you try unplugging the MAF meter?
There are many reasons the injectors won't fire, and a plugged\def MAF is one of them. Also, a bad crank or cam sensor will cause no spark intermittently, which might explain your erratic engine performance before it crapped. I'm pretty sure than an OBDII car won't fire the injectors if the spark isn't there. I don't think the code you set would be a result of the engine stalling.
John
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66 2+2 C Code Auto. 52K miles.
Something quite different coming eventually.
now sandblasted and DP40'd since this pic was taken.
a two legged hole shot, even with a munged up carb and snow tires...
Last edited by John_Del; 02-11-2010 at 07:43 AM.
Reason: additional text
There are many reasons the injectors won't fire, and a plugged\def MAF is one of them. Also, a bad crank or cam sensor will cause no spark intermittently, which might explain your erratic engine performance before it crapped. I'm pretty sure than an OBDII car won't fire the injectors if the spark isn't there. I don't think the code you set would be a result of the engine stalling.
John
Chalk this one up to experience.
Turns out that the engine won't run if the wire falls off the crankshaft position sensor. Guess the fault code was for real... The plug must have been knocked loose in the accident, and finally stopped making contact. Question is whether that was the only problem, or if the fuel filter was bad too. Oh well, looked like the original filter, so I guess it was overdue to be replaced anyway with 80,000 miles.
The good thing is AAA was too busy to tow it to the shop, so I spent more time looking for problems and found the loose wire before I had sunk any money into it.
Chalk this one up to experience.
Turns out that the engine won't run if the wire falls off the crankshaft position sensor. Guess the fault code was for real... The plug must have been knocked loose in the accident, and finally stopped making contact. Question is whether that was the only problem, or if the fuel filter was bad too. Oh well, looked like the original filter, so I guess it was overdue to be replaced anyway with 80,000 miles.
The good thing is AAA was too busy to tow it to the shop, so I spent more time looking for problems and found the loose wire before I had sunk any money into it.
Boy you spoiled my message before I could type it. My guess was IF you verify fuel @ rail, then it's the job of the crank positioner to fire your injectors. This sensor is somewhat common to fail on Fords that is often not the first guess. In your case a cheap fix. Good for you.
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If you borrow a tool more than twice, you need to own it
George email: <myhawk@gsinet.net>
pay yourself for fixing this! One of your favorite brews would be a great way!
Consumer Reports did a nationwide test where they disconnected the MAF on a Taurus and brought it to repair shops across the country. Not many of them spent a few seconds under the hood looking, found the problem and told them 'it's nothin' and let them leave at no charge......
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Steve Leslie, 65 cpe, 302, toploader, A/C, orig disc brakes, bench seat, tri-bars, tri-Ys, I need tri-power! 356,000 miles (4/12/2010)
1965 Ford Mustang - All Weather Fighter
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2003 Ford Taurus no start
