I brought it to the Lincoln dealer ship initially for two reasons. First, I figured (perhaps incorrectly) that they were the experts. Second, I purchased an extended warranty to cover the car for 100K miles. Much to my dismay, I discovered that the Ford “base” care extended warranty does not cover much. The service manager also told me that the dealer who sold me the car 3 and a half years ago should not have sold me the base care extended warranty. Hindsight is 20/20, and I cannot do about that now. The only reason I have continued to bring it back is that I trusted that since they were well involved in the repair attempts, they would know the history, whereas a different mechanic might repeat some of the previously attempted repairs. Obviously, I should not keep throwing good money after bad.
Now the service advisor has told me that they have not been able to get any error codes to show up, even though they have been able to duplicate the problem by driving the car. They also indicated that the fuel pressure throughout the system has checked ok. The fuel filter was replaced a couple of months ago during my 70K mile service.