need help finding the problem

[foxyford]

Hello AF people,
I have a 1996,crown vic,police interceptor, I have owned the car for three months.180,000 miles. very clean. For the last two weeks,every other day or so,the car just won't start, sometimes when I turn it over, the acc. lights come on ,but no noise, not even a click.
Sometimes it will turn over and as long as my foot is on the gas,it'll
run, let go of the gas and it dies. So.. I thought maybe starter or something fuel related. Took the car in for a diagnostic test and the shop said NOTHING is wrong with my car. knowing better than that I went ahead and did a full tune up, Found a vac leak come from the throttle,fixed it, I use cheap gas, noticed a little build around the injectors, put cleaner in the tank, this was yesterday, 7/31, that I completed all the work. My car started up everytime after that yesterday, but today, same ol'problem . What's missing? should I just wait for this gas tank to run out or maybe replace Idle control valve?

Help, Foxyford

[cobradude360]

are your battery cables clean as well as the posts of the battery and the conections to the starter

[BiggerJon]

check the wires going into the starter... poor design

[foxyford]

I have checked the battery cable, but not the starter connections. It's been two days since I've filled the gas tank w/the injection cleaner. She still hesitates a bit, but a few good pushes of the pedal and a couple minutes of warming up (on a hot day) she runs great. I'm hoping that the five dollar bottle of f.j. cleaner is the cure all. However, poor design?, like how? I'll go look it over.
thanks,foxyford

[fbi-interceptor]

hey did you clean your maf sensor lately? i was having similiar problems but was fixed in 5 minutes by cleaning the maf sensor

[radioman2002]

I had a similar problem last year on my 1996. Other than the car not even clicking,( I suspect a bad key switch), the car would only run if your foot kept the car above idle, turned out to be the IAC control valve, every time the car went back to idle it stalled. I changed it with another I had, and it cured the proble. I then soaked the original valve in carburator cleaner for a few days, reinstalled and the car runs fine now.