Starting Problems

[Stephen Cross 2]

Hello All, I have been lurking ever since I bought by 2003 XLT new in 12/02. You have helped me quite a bit. But now, I have a problem that I can not find a solution for. On Sunday, after about 5 stops, my truck refused to start. It would crank normally, but would not catch. I tried reseting the fuel inertia switch. The tow truck drive pounded on the bottom of the fuel tank while I cranked, again with no results. So, it was towed home. I dug out the code reader I had gotten from Harbor Freight and it said "NO CODES". I tried it several times. Then I tried starting it and it started normally. Then on Monday morning, it started OK and got me to work. That evening, it just cranked again. I checked for codes again, and again "NO CODES". I had it towed to a garage. This morning when I dropped off the keys, I tried again and it just cranked, no start. Then around 10, they called and said that they could not find any problems. It started OK and the fuel pressure was about 65 PSI. The only suggestion they had was to leave it a day or two and they would keep checking it every now and then as they can not find a problem until it is actually a problem.



Any suggestions?



Many thanks,



Steve

 

[scott degroot]

Need to do a current ramp test on the fuel pump, even if it is working this test will pinpoint a faulty fuel pump.

 

[Gary Hart]

I just now solved this same problem for myself! There is a tube which vents air pressure from the valve-cover area back over into the air-intake boot. On this hot day... (90 degrees F here) that rubber gets soft... and it surely was sucking-in air from the outside! I was at my local Harbor Freight buying some tools... so I went back inside and bought some ZipTies and zip-tied the connections of this hose and sure enough... that was it!



I totally would not have even thought to check this area either.... the reason I ended-up noticing this area was because when I went to checki my air-filter to see if it was perhaps very clogged-up... the lifting and tugging on the air-intake boot caused this tube to come loose. I noticed gaping hole of this tube after I finished snapping-down the air-filter again and thought "Whoa!". And when I went to push this tube back into the air-intake.... and the elbow thing that connect to the valve cover area... I noticed it was certainly too loose to be able to make an air seal.



I'm willing to bet a ton of SportTrac owners like me have had this issue occur... and probably got told that they needed a new fuel pump, etc. I know I was thinking that's probably was it was.



I sure hope this helps. :supercool: