1999 Ford E150 with 150K on it. This van has generally been a champ, but it’s recently developed a habit of not starting… sometimes. I replaced the battery a couple months ago, and the starter sounds fine, it always cranks enthusiastically, but the engine won’t start. It’s as though it’s out of gas, but there’s plenty of gas. And I’ll retry every so often, and then all of a sudden, hours or days later, it will just start right up like nothing ever happened.
On one such occasion I finally paid to have it towed to the shop. And the mechanic goes out, turns the key… and it starts right up. So then they run the standard diagnostics, said the fuel pressure looks good. So they don’t have any idea what the problem is either, and their only suggestion is to tow it in again next time it doesn’t start, or leave it with them for a long time until they can recreate the problem. Arrg! If I pay for another tow only to have the problem evaporate again I’ll punch myself in the face. Any other ideas of what could be going on, anything I could try looking at instead of playing whack-a-mole with the mechanic?
Thanks for any advice.
