94 escort wont start

[jproz1167]

okay been ready to buy tnt and send this mechanical A$$ O to the moon .... it all started about a month ago, car had a check engine light coming on periodically had a slight hesitation while starting to accelerate but never died. Then one day while my wife was driving it the car just died and in now way does it even try to fire, the car is definately in time, and the timing belt is new, new fuel filter ect.

symtoms Ive noticed priming fuel pressure immediately jumps to approx. 42 psi, however with no fuel pressure gauge hooked up after building pressure and the shrader valve is depressed maybe 2 tablespoons of fuel come out.

I've hooked a timing light up to every plug wire and the timing light flashes so that means it is getting fire right.

noid light on injectors indicate all are pulsing.

compression was never checked since car ran perfect prior to all this happening and it passed emmisions tests with ease so internally I am guessing the motor is fine.

engine turns over very good, no codes are present since I never checked them before changing my battery .... oh and yes the gas tank is full as she filled it two blocks before it died.

Ive read about the cam sensor as well as the crank sensor but my cars firing and injectors are pulsing so I'm fairly certain this isn't the cause, I've got a TPI trans am and when it's fuel rails have 45psi and the shrader valve is depressed alot of fuel comes out, but if I'm getting 42 psi on the escort yet barely any fuel comes out whats going on with this at 42psi there should be sufficient volume right.

am I dealing with a plugged pre-cat near the manifold, bad fuel pump, bad sensors, ignition module, PCM, by the way the car has 125,000 miles on it, it's never had overheating problems or other engine related problems. and yes Ive poured some fuel into the intake and it still failed to try and start.

someone has to have had this problem and my guess it's a simple fix so help me out

[adrian m]

i had a similar problem im my mom's mazda. It didn't like to accelerate and It wanted to shut off at low RPM's and in reverse. It turned out that the piston rings were worn out, and oil was getting to the spark plugs. BIG PROBLEM. I guess you can check those for oil.. I hope this helps, at least to even further narrow the problem.

[mustang302]

A thought from when the initial symptoms started, how old is the oxygen sensor?

[Nemo69r]

Sometimes when a fuel injected vehicle won't start on it's own, it seems to work if you push down on the gas peddle and hold it to the floor while you try to start it. You definately do not want to pump the peddle. This seems to flush out the injection system and push any excess fuel back to the tank. If your worried about the amount of pressure in the rail, there is only a small amount of fuel that needs to come out of the shrader valve to release the pressure. If you are getting all fuel and no air type mixture, that seems to be a good sign. Sometimes you can hear a pump turn on briefly and then off as you turn the key on, this is a good sign that it has pumped up to pressure. I haven't had a whole lot of luck trying to run a fuel injected car by dumping gas down an intake. It seems that they are made to work best with the gas entering through the mist controlled injectors. The fuel may just not be getting into the cylinders properly through the intake. I would do a compression check if possible, since you might want to check the plugs anyway. (#1 plug wire is always a nightmare on the 1.9, extensions can sneak out the plugs easily) It is possible for the oxygen sensor to starve or flood the vehicle (previous post), I've never had one completely shut down a car, just make it run rich as it wore out. (bad gas mileage) It would be interesting to see what you find out. I wouldn't think it would be a plugged exhaust. Fuel pressure may be just low enough for system not to work, you may have to test that. On the 1.9, a person can easily take off the valve cover and peak into the timing belt housing to check on the condition of that, and check to make sure the valves are all function correctly. Good Luck

[jproz1167]

well the o2 sensor might be a problem area we bought the car about 3 years ago and never changed it. In its final days of running yes it did get rather poor fuel economy seemed to be using nearly as much as our 93 mustand 5.0 I did do a code scan once and I believe if memory serves me right a code was setting for the TPS sensor whether this can cause this no start condition I don't know. looking at the car takes awhile since it's not close to me anymore and it's not a very high priority to me since it is not our only car.

As for the valves I did have the valve cover off and all the valves were working normally, I originally thought she my have got it hat warped the head and broke the cam, but this isn't the case.

while a ford is cranking under a no start condition can there ecm's detect why they are not starting, or will they just trip a distributor reference type code.

next time I'm near the car I will run a compression test on it and see.

I had also thought about the mass air sensor as being the culprit but I recalled once I had the rubber elbow off the throttle body and the car still started, it ran pretty bad so I sort of dismissed the mass air sensor as being the problem, I do hear the pump run so I am not leaning towards that as being the problem. My wife has never mentioned the car having any electrical problems so I'm fairly certain this isn't a cause either.

well keep giving me tips and sooner or later we'll know what happened.

thanks guys

[monzillaman]

My wife's car did the same thing (with a couple other symptoms). It sent me nuts for a couple months before breaking down and having it checked professionally and to my horror and embarassment, it turned out to be bad plug wires. Like you, I thought I was getting enough spark too... just a thought.