HALP! Mysterious, intermittent ignition problem -- '00 Expedition

Vrooom-Vroom
Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:09:29 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

My husband’s 2000 Ford Expedition has 94K miles and has been very well maintained. For the past few months, it’s been having intermittent ignition problems. It’ll start up fine for a few days, and then suddenly will need several-to-many attempts in order to start. Engine cranks every time, but won’t catch. A few times it has taken over 10 min to get it started, and on occasion we’ve had to take our other vehicle instead. My son and I spent 15 creepy minutes in a dark parking lot the other night trying to get the truck to start. It’s in the Ford repair shop for the third time in a month now (last time was for 4 days), and the shop has been unable to replicate the problem enough to diagnose it. (The two times when it wouldn’t start for them was when they DIDN’T have it hooked up to fuel-system test equipment.) I’m getting the sense they just want us to go away quietly and buy a new vehicle, but this one is the type we like…paid for! The problem occurs at various times of day…in various types of weather…when truck is hot, cold, or in between…gas tank at different levels…we can’t find a common denominator, and all other diagnostics come back fine. The only slightly creepy suggestion the shop had was that maybe someone poured sugar in the gas tank…yikes. Hoping for a less-creepy diagnosis…thanks for any help anyone can provide!

7 posts - 4 participants