I would drive somewhere with the vehicle working fine, turn it off, do whatever I was doing and then go to start it again to leave and it would turn over, sputter a few times and then die again almost like it was starved for fuel when I had a full tank. People kept telling me it was a bad distributor, I told them to stuff it. Another shop told me it was the alternator, again a few choice words were exchanged. I could tell it wasn't the distributor or the alternator but I hooked them up to the diagnostic anyway. Just as I suspected, they passed. I figured since it felt like it was starved for fuel there was something wrong with the fuel system. I cleaned the injectors and flushed the lines but the problem persisted so I replaced the fuel pump. (finding a whole other problem during the process with the brakes). Thinking I had covered all my bases flushing the lines, cleaning the injectors, replacing the fuel filter and the fuel pump, I was absolutely pissed when again it happened on my way home from work yet again. Just out of curiosity, I switched the relay for my fuel pump with the relay from my ac blower. BINGO. ac blower didn't work, fuel pump did! I could have ordered a few relays from ford, but I decided to go to the local junkyard and pocket a few from other explorers, its not like they're hard to come by. fyi, don't try taking them from anything newer than an '01.
I would drive somewhere with the vehicle working fine, turn it off, do whatever I was doing and then go to start it again to leave and it would turn over, sputter a few times and then die again almost like it was starved for fuel when I had a full tank. People kept telling me it was a bad distributor, I told them to stuff it. Another shop told me it was the alternator, again a few choice words were exchanged. I could tell it wasn't the distributor or the alternator but I hooked them up to the diagnostic anyway. Just as I suspected, they passed. I figured since it felt like it was starved for fuel there was something wrong with the fuel system. I cleaned the injectors and flushed the lines but the problem persisted so I replaced the fuel pump. (finding a whole other problem during the process with the brakes). Thinking I had covered all my bases flushing the lines, cleaning the injectors, replacing the fuel filter and the fuel pump, I was absolutely pissed when again it happened on my way home from work yet again. Just out of curiosity, I switched the relay for my fuel pump with the relay from my ac blower. BINGO. ac blower didn't work, fuel pump did! I could have ordered a few relays from ford, but I decided to go to the local junkyard and pocket a few from other explorers, its not like they're hard to come by. fyi, don't try taking them from anything newer than an '01.
- Jameson T., Downingtown, PA, US