# 2003 ford escape v6 not starting again after long drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** escape, stall, engines, ford\ **Created:** [July 23, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309 "2010-07-23T00:20:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xobster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e274bd/32.png) [@xobster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/xobster)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/1 "2010-07-23T00:20:59Z")
2003 Ford Escape v6 110,000 miles. Starts in the morning, starts after an 8 hour work day, but If I drive for about an hour (especially in warmer weather), turn it off, and try to start it up again after about 10-15 minutes of sitting, it will turn over but not stay running. Putting my food on the accelerator keeps the engine going, but once I remove my foot from the pedal, the engine dies. The car has to sit for about an hour (sometimes 2) before it will start up again. Been happening for about a year, worse in warmer weather, fuel filter was changed, but it didn’t help. Mechanic said nothing came up on diagnostic check and no warning lights come on. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![shadowfax](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/shadowfax/32/13026_2.png) [@shadowfax](https://community.cartalk.com/u/shadowfax)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/2 "2010-07-23T00:22:45Z")
idle control valve or bad fuel tank venting would be my guess. I’ll avoid another angry rant about mechanics who can’t diagnose anything unless a computer tells them what the problem is, other than to say you didn’t take it to a mechanic - you took it to a monkey. ---
**Author:** ![waterboy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/waterboy/32/764_2.png) [@waterboy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/waterboy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/3 "2010-07-23T02:01:35Z")
Fuel pump is my guess. You know what causes it to happen, get the system checked while in failure mode. Stop by a mechanic when failure mode is probable and it can be diagnosed then if it fails to start. In response to shadow No lights ever showed up on ours, 2 tows to the dealer and no codes and started right up, failure mode diagnosis found the fuel pump to be the problem, 03 ford fixed under warranty. ---
**Author:** ![xobster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e274bd/32.png) [@xobster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/xobster)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/4 "2010-07-23T22:52:39Z")
Took it to a different mechanic today and he said they traced it to the idle air control valve and it will run me about $350… reasonable? ---
**Author:** ![xobster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e274bd/32.png) [@xobster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/xobster)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/5 "2010-07-29T18:59:45Z")
So far so good. It’s been a week and I haven’t had any problems with it starting back up. Total was $384.00 ---
**Author:** ![laverdia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/48db29/32.png) [@laverdia](https://community.cartalk.com/u/laverdia)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/6 "2011-04-27T02:00:48Z")
Did that fix it? I’m having the same problem… ---
**Author:** ![xobster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e274bd/32.png) [@xobster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/xobster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-ford-escape-v6-not-starting-again-after-long-drive/52309/7 "2011-04-27T03:15:07Z")
Yes, swapping out the idle control valve fixed the problem… I think $384 was a little high though but I think the mechanic I took it to was a little steep on labor charges…