I am having a problem with the car I use to go back and forth to work with. The problem is very intermittent. It started about 3 years ago, I had started restoring a GTO and put the gas that was left over into the tank of the taurus. About 3 days later I was driving on the parkway and the car lost power and stalled. The car restarted and hesitated then after awhile ran fine. It felt like vapor lock. I assumed it was bad gas and added some injector cleaner. The problem went away for 3 years.
About a 3 months ago I gassed up at the same station that I always do. About a day later I was on the parkway and had the same problem. After it stalled I let it sit for about 5 minutes. It started up and ran fine. I put injector cleaner in it and it ran fine.
Until today. I was coming home from work and just got off the parkway and it started hesitating like before. I drove it home and the more I drove it the more it lost power. I got to my driveway and parked it. Came out about 1 hour later and started it. It stalled and then I got it running. It ran like it had vapor lock. After a few minutes it started to run fine again. I drove to the auto parts store and added some injector cleaner and went and got some more gas. As of right now the car runs fine.

When it starts to stall it feels like it is starving for gas. If I press on the gas pedal nothing happens and the RPMS drop. I was thinking maybe the gas filter is clogged, but it has only happened a couple of times in the past 3 years. Then I was thinking that maybe there is a filter on the pickup in the tank, like the older cars had, If that is clogged it would cause that problem and when the sucking from the pump is stopped the debris would fall off letting the car run good again.


Any ideas. I was a dealer mechanic for about 10 years back in the 70's and 80's so I know my way around a car.


The car is a 96 Taurus with the 3.0 DOHC motor.

I would check the fuel filter, also Taurus' are bad about fuel pumps going out. If you can get it to act up you need to see if you are getting spark or not, if not it could be an EEC or ignition problem.

I spent some time as a wrench at a Ford Dealer here in Denver, Co........Sounds like it time for a Fuel Pump.....how many miles on this thing?........If you have a fuel pump pressure guage, install it at the schrader valve on the fuel rail and drive it until it acts up..........good luck. Mike

I spent some time as a wrench at a Ford Dealer here in Denver, Co........Sounds like it time for a Fuel Pump.....how many miles on this thing?........If you have a fuel pump pressure gauge, install it at the schrader valve on the fuel rail and drive it until it acts up..........good luck. Mike


car has 124,000 on it. that fuel pump is like $300.

Is that a dealer price? I bought one for my Sunbird from Carquest and was about $70.00

did you do an exhaust pressure test-if it still has a cat. conv. it might be getting stopped up

like was said above check fuel pressure while the car is acting up

Is that a dealer price? I bought one for my Sunbird from Carquest and was about $70.00




This one comes with the fuel sender. You can get it without it for cheaper, but the parts are old and the sender might break while changing it over.

like was said above check fuel pressure while the car is acting up



Thats going to be hard. It only acts up three times in the last 3 years. And when you shut the car down and restart it will start to run better again. Thats why I don't know if it is the pump. If that was the problem it might happen more often. That is why I tend to think it is the sock in the tank getting loaded up with junk, then when the pressure is relieved the junk falls off.

did you do an exhaust pressure test-if it still has a cat. conv. it might be getting stopped up

If they were stopped up it might happen more often.

Thats going to be hard. It only acts up three times in the last 3 years. And when you shut the car down and restart it will start to run better again. Thats why I don't know if it is the pump. If that was the problem it might happen more often. That is why I tend to think it is the sock in the tank getting loaded up with junk, then when the pressure is relieved the junk falls off.

Either way (bad pump/clogged sock) pressure is going to drop and either way you'll have to pull the tank to check it out. If it were to still maintain pressure while losing power maybe you filled up with water contaminated or otherwise bad gas once a year for the past 3 years.

Either way (bad pump/clogged sock) pressure is going to drop and either way you'll have to pull the tank to check it out. If it were to still maintain pressure while losing power maybe you filled up with water contaminated or otherwise bad gas once a year for the past 3 years.



And if I pulled the tank I would change the pump and the pickup with the tank down.

I think sometimes it might be bad gas. When it happens I put cleaner in it and it seems to work.

This is a hard problem to diagnose because it happens out of the blue and only three times in the last 3 years or so. The only good point is when it happens the car starts right up and I can get it home.

I know there's a rubber vacuum line running between the engine and fire wall. I want to say it's for the PCV system (been 4 yrs ago) the rubber is VERY cheap and it turns to mush. I think it was plastic tube and the rubber ends were effected. On the cars we had (fleet of them) it was a common problem and they would run so lean they would die. We did a fuel pump on the first one till we figured that out.
Just food for thought.
Jody

I know there's a rubber vacuum line running between the engine and fire wall. I want to say it's for the PCV system (been 4 yrs ago) the rubber is VERY cheap and it turns to mush. I think it was plastic tube and the rubber ends were effected. On the cars we had (fleet of them) it was a common problem and they would run so lean they would die. We did a fuel pump on the first one till we figured that out.
Just food for thought.
Jody


I will have to check that out. But the only reason I think it might not be the problem is that it only happened 3 times in the last 3 years. If it was a vaucumn leak it would be all the time....unless it is opening and closing when the problem happens.

I have purchased 2 electric fuel pumps on Ebay for my 1993 ford F150 and my 1995 Ford Aerostar from global-automotive and have had no problems with them, both came with warranties for 1 year..........I priced out a pump for your 1996 Taurus and it was $34.95 plus $8.05 shipping..............here is a link to the page I found.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-FUEL-PUMP-REPAIR-KIT-1996-2006-FORD-TAURUS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem58828d85bbQQitem Z380147434939QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fA ccessories

I lost the fuel pump in my Exploder at around 125K, No warning. Stalled at a light, wouldn't start again. The brushes had worn completely through the commutator on the pump motor.
I have heard of guys blowing compressed air into the fuel line to blow the sock off of the pickup when it got too clogged an they didn't have time to drop the tank (or like always happens, full fuel tank) Don't know if that would kill the high pressure pump on something like that.
K

did you do an exhaust pressure test-if it still has a cat. conv. it might be getting stopped up



I checked the exhaust, put my hand over the tail pipe. It dosen't seem to have a lot of pressure coming out as compared to other cars.

Well it has happened again 3 months later, last night I put gas in before I got onto the parkway. Drove home and everything was fine, then it acted up just before I got home. It stalled out and I limped home. I put some gas into it and some injector cleaner, but this time seemed worse. It wouldn't start, and when it did it ran for a second and stalled. I pulled the plugs and they were dark tan. I gave everything a visual check and it seemed fine. I went inside and ate dinner. After an hour I came out and it started right up and drove fine. This morning I used it and it was great for awhile then it acted up again.
The previous times it had acted up I didn't get any codes, now I got P0171 and 0174. I also noticed that the pvc hose looked flat, I don't know if that would have anything to do with it. I

Any ideas.

About 3 days later I was driving on the parkway and the car lost power and stalled.
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I got to my driveway and parked it. .


I think I see your problem. You are driving on the PARKway and parking on the DRIVEway.:hurray:

We had a Toyota at the shop and every time we moved the car it would quit runing.An hour later we would start the car and it would run fine.We got it to start acting up and pulled the fuel line to the fuel rail to get a fuel sample.50% water and 50% gas and some crap floating inbetween that would kill any fuel filter.This one had up stumped also and we had the plugs out of it, till we pulled the fuel line

We had a Toyota at the shop and every time we moved the car it would quit runing.An hour later we would start the car and it would run fine.We got it to start acting up and pulled the fuel line to the fuel rail to get a fuel sample.50% water and 50% gas and some crap floating inbetween that would kill any fuel filter.This one had up stumped also and we had the plugs out of it, till we pulled the fuel line


It is definitely something fuel related. As I said before it almost feels like vapor lock. I am sure I got some bad gas and it has f-cked up the whole system.