Any leads on diagnosing this issue will be much appreciated!
A year or more ago, I got this car running again after I bypassed the fuel pump relay and also did a DIY injector cleaning by repeated pouring Berryman’s B-12 Chemtool straight into throttle body throat, in small amounts, then cranking with starter spray. Car first only sputtered. Got better with repeated injector treatments outlined above and soon ran fine.
Recently, it stopped behaving!
I can hear the fuel pump prime and I THINK I’m getting fuel into the fuel rail…though not certain. At least once, by depressing schraeder valve needle, I got fuel there. But I am not absolutely sure fuel rail is fueling 100% nor have I checked pressure. (No gauge, getting one tomorrow.)
Engine fires right up with Starter fluid, and it will sputter along a brief while if I have “pre-treated” with Berrymans. However, the accelerator apparently sends no gas flow. Or maybe something else in the fuel/air flow is awry.
I will replace fuel filter too, but given the fact that the engine had been running fine but then one day out of the blue just suddenly stopped mid-crank, apparently because no fuel flow, doesn’t seem like a fuel filter build up clog, to me. (But what do I know!) Current fuel filter is not that old, either.
Fuel pressure gauge may help further diagnose, after I check rail pressure.
1st thing, make sure it has gas in it… gas gauge could be faulty…
Once you remove the fuel filter, take a white paper towel and put it on something hard like the floor or work bench and tap the inlet side of the filter on the white towel, look for anything that could be stopping the filter up like trash in the tank, even rust, yes I have seen rust in a plastic tank with just 30K miles on it, can you say bad gas… lol
Once you have checked and replaced the fuel filter and performed the fuel pressure test, give us an update on the results…
Thank you! Very helpful. Definitely plenty of gas, though now that I think of it, the first abrupt halt in engine performance two years ago came just after I put low octane “Regular” in the tank at a station whose gas tanks were drained low. Now after thinking about it, I’m wondering if low quality gas, maybe dirty, might be a factor here. Due to finances, I recently quit relying solely on mid octane or high test gas which I had relied upon after getting the car going last time. Maybe that’s a stretch, but your advice on tapping the gas filter is on point. I have wondered if there might have occurred some blockage in the filter sufficient to suddenly block glow altogether.
Yes, I have been driving the car after bypassing the fuel pump relay. Ford on this model welded the relay onto the back of the fuse/relay box. It’s not plug and play. New central box would be $600. Can’t afford that at present.
Has cranked and run fine this past year after my DIY by-pass fix, until the recent, sudden shut-down I did check the 20amp fuse for the fuel pump and it was fine. In short, I can hear the fuel pump cut on when I turn the car on, but no gas or almost no gas is getting to the injectors. Or, maybe the injectors aren’t activating. I did not know how to address that. Again, car fires fine with Starter spray, but then sputters out.
Per codes, I get nothing under “No Stored Codes” under my year/model Ford Ex.
Under “Pending” I get two: 1) Monitor checks not complete, needs to be driven; 2) P0232-Pump Secondary Circuit High
I don’t know where to go with that.
So, my current action steps are: 1) Buy a fuel pressure gauge and get that reading 2) Replace Fuel Filter.
This does indeed sound like a problem with the fuel system. The power-train computer is what causes more gasoline to flow into the engine, by increasing the injectors’ pulse length in rsponse to more measured airflow. Seems posssible you still have some sort of injector problem. Knucklehead diy’r opinion, no 03 Exped experience.
OK, thank you! 1) At present I’m still trying to determine if any gas is getting into the fuel rail. I have a loaner fuel pressure test kit from AutoZone. But prior to that check I need to replace the fuel filter, just to cover that base. (Even that little job is hard to do in this cold weather. You have to really press down hard on the tabs at the three connection points, as I’m sure you know, and then also use a little elbow grease even still. I managed to remove filter the other day in order to see if any dirt or grit came out of it. It seemed fine so I put it back on. However, now, I’ve decided to put on a brand new one. Hard to remove the old one with frozen fingers! Try again tomorrow with aid of same little trick I used Sunday to depress the release tabs and pull the old filter free.
Your comment about the power train computer maybe interfering with the flow to or activation of the injectors…sounds like a good lead on a diagnosis step once I get the new fuel filter in place and then check fuel rail pressure.
Question: Do you know how that might show up on my code reader?