Just purchased a used one owner 95 Taurus GL wagon with only 89,000 miles on it. Starts right up runs great idles quieter than my 07 Focus! but twice within a week it just up and died, once after having been used on my rural postal route with roughly 2+ - 3 hours of drive pause drive pause drive pause driving, running the ac for roughly half that time stopped and turned it off and would then crank back up momentarily then sputter out. The other time after straight driving for about 25 miles then turning off and the same problem when trying to start up again.
Now this $4000.00 vehicle is sitting in my yard waiting to be paid off because I can’t take the chance of being in the middle of my route and it punking out again.
Any ideas? Any fixes? Help!
Thanks
Does it always start briefly and then sputter out? Or does it sometimes just not start at all?
What if it starts briefly and you hold the throttle open a bit? Will it keep running?
If it cranks over but won’t start at all the easiest thing to do is just narrow it down to a spark or fuel problem. At an auto parts store you can get a can of starting fluid & a spark tester or spare spark plug. If you shoot some starting fluid into the intake and that helps it run then you likely have a fuel problem. The spark tester will tell you whether you have a spark problem.
Hi,
The first time I gave it about 20 minutes to chill out tried it again it started up with a little hesitation and a push on the gas pedal, sat and idled for a minute put it in gear and it made it about 200 feet before sputtering out again. Left it sit for the tow truck to pick up. Sent it back to firestone since I had just gotten it back from them after an oil change,new battery,air filter and fuel system flush. They checked it out again and concluded that the air filter casing? had not been put back together completely and that was the issue.
So I picked it up drove it roughly 25 miles without problems stopped to get a coffee for about 15 minutes tried to start it up and click, click, click no dice, got a jump, started right up made it 100 feet idled at a stop sign and died again.
had it towed back to firestone again where they kept it for 5 days driving it all over, long distance, short distance, letting it just run in the shop and of course it never once died!
Now that I think of it on the second dieing day I thought I would give the cruise control a go and when I engaged it the car just kind of (don’t know how to explain it) chug chug chug and I turned it (cruise control) off. and the car continued on fine until it died at the coffee shop
My husband has tooled around on the internet and has found some other mentions of this problem with 95 models but has not found a fix if there is one.
I really hate to know that there is nothing to be done for this car and I am stuck paying off something that will only sit in my yard.
So the starter motor didn’t engage? Did the engine die while at idle?
… sounds like a bad battery terminal connection.
Also been an rca, same dm car. Try the mass air flow sensor.