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Anupam Routh

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Greetings! This is the message I posted on 12/5/05. My wife still had the same problem. Expedition stayed with the garage for two days but the mechanic could not find any fault. I asked the garage to replace the fuel filter. The SUV is towed to a Ford dealer today. Interestingly, the towing person started the car both times by pressing brake and accelerator simaultaneously. Some one suggested that it could be fuel pump problem. What you think? With thanks.







Need help with Expediton problem by arouth, 12/5/2005 21:14 ET

Category - General Information



Greetings!



My wife drives our 1999 Ford Expedition Truck. It has 75000 miles

on it. I have a 2003 ST XLT.



Recently the Expedition has had the following problem:



At various time of the day, and in various temperatures, the car has

refused to start. I turn on the ignition and the engine cranks, but then

nothing. After sitting for some time with my foot on the gas pedal, the engine

finally starts working, but for a while it sputters. This doesn't

necessarily happen first thing in the morning, when my wife takes

my daughter to school, but it has happened several

times in the afternoon when my wife is getting ready to pick my kid up

from school.



I changed the battery, thinking it would solve the problem, and for a few

weeks all was ok. Then the pattern started again.



Yesterday I drove in the afternoon without any problems, parked the car and went

shopping for one hour. The car refused to start, and even though I managed to get

the engine running eventually, it cut out a couple of times on the way home.

This morning it refused to crank at all and I had to get it towed to a nearby repair

shop. This afternoon they called me to tell me that the truck

has been running smoothly all day. They drove it around and started it

several times without any problem. I've told them to hang on to it overnigh and

see what happens tomorrow morning.



Does anyone have a clue as to what is happening to my truck? I'm wondering if it

is the spark plugs, or the distributer or even the computer dying.

I don't want to get stuck by the side of the road should this happen again.



Thanks in advance.



A. Routh
 
Don't really have a clue, but if replacing the battery solved the problem for a period of time, I'm wondering if you may have an erradically fault alternator. In other words sometimes it works fine and sometimes it doesn't. This "could" explain the frequency with which you're suffering these problems. My suggestion comes from experience with a previous car and though the symptoms aren't the same, it sounds like there is some similarity. Pull the alternator and have it bench tested. It's free in most parts places and if you can do it yourself all you'll lose it time if it's not the problem. Another possiblity sounds like it could be a loose ground... somewhere. Don't know where you start looking for that one. Definately look into the alternator though.
 
It possibly could be a faulty throttle position sensor. If contact is not properly made when the accellerator is not touched, it may be OK when the peddle is slightly depressed moving the variable resistor pickup to a different spot on the resistor. That might explain it working for the tow guy since he depressed the accellerator which should not be required.



A possible scenario is that there is a bad spot on the TPS. The reading going to the Engine computer causes the wrong amount of gas to be injected into the engine which may flood it slightly. When you let it sit with your foot on the accelerator ( and the TPS in a good spot) it starts but temperarily runs rough 'cause the engine was originally flooded and has to burn off the excessive fuel and clean the plugs. Since the engine is cold when first started up after sitting all night, the over rich initial startup may not flood it.



Another scenario, is that there is an injector that leaks even after the engine is turned off until the fuel pressure drops sufficiently. This would show no problem when sitting over night since the fuel pressure has dropped many hours earlier and the excessive fuel evaporated. Since there is no accelerator pump, as with a non-injected engine, stepping on the throttle at cranking speeds just increases the amount of air entering the engine and may sufficiently lean out the over rich condition.



Just a few guesses.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
seems like a simular problem my dad had with a towncar a few years ago...the fix was the TPS...
 

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