2004 Taurus, dead. Help please

[kabonk]

My 2004 Taurus (vulcan) stalled right after start up while backing out of the garage. It has 40,000 K miles. Won't restart. Sounds like it is trying, but won't fire. I grabbed a code scanner from Murray's but it will not establish a link. I took the scanner to my windstar and it worked fine. I checked all under dash and under hood fuses and they looked OK.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[alex boss]

Originally Posted by kabonk

My 2004 Taurus (vulcan) stalled right after start up while backing out of the garage. It has 40,000 K miles. Won't restart. Sounds like it is trying, but won't fire. I grabbed a code scanner from Murray's but it will not establish a link. I took the scanner to my windstar and it worked fine. I checked all under dash and under hood fuses and they looked OK.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Many possibilities-lets start here! Your owners manual will tell you where your inertia switch (shuts down fuel pump when tripped by a collision or bump but will go bad sometimes) is in your 04. I think 04s have them but might be wrong. Anyway, try to reset it, and see what happens. Some one on here can tell you where to look if you don't have a manual. If that doesn't work, tell us as much as you can about Check Engine lights or any thing you think of that is out of the ordinary for your car. Good luck, Alex
Edit BTW did you run your battery down while trying to start it, and then try to read the codes?? That could be why you get no communication/link. If that is not the case we begin to suspect the ECM (computer) is faulty. Try charging your battery (DO NOT JUMP with scanner connected) and then try reading codes again. Unfortunatly the codes are probably lost if battery went dead.

[kabonk]

Originally Posted by alex boss

Many possibilities-lets start here! Your owners manual will tell you where your inertia switch (shuts down fuel pump when tripped by a collision or bump but will go bad sometimes) is in your 04. I think 04s have them but might be wrong. Anyway, try to reset it, and see what happens. Some one on here can tell you where to look if you don't have a manual. If that doesn't work, tell us as much as you can about Check Engine lights or any thing you think of that is out of the ordinary for your car. Good luck, Alex
Edit BTW did you run your battery down while trying to start it, and then try to read the codes?? That could be why you get no communication/link. If that is not the case we begin to suspect the ECM (computer) is faulty. Try charging your battery (DO NOT JUMP with scanner connected) and then try reading codes again. Unfortunatly the codes are probably lost if battery went dead.

Thanks for the response!
-Checked the fuel pump cutoff, and it was not tripped.
-No check engine lights
-battery is OK, Still turns over well
-Tried to start again this morning and same thing. Turns over, tries to start but never actually starts. I can smell some fuel/burn after trying to start.

Still no start.

[kabonk]

Where is the ECM located on this car?

[Banjoman10]

Had once the same problem w/ a 2001 Vulcan engine. Suspected (a hunch really) the cam position sensor, a possible bad connection, the current generated here is very small, a relatively high resistance in a connnector can foul it up. Anyway, a simple connect-disconnect a couple of times between the sensor's wire and the wiring to the ECM did the trick. Obviously it was a less than satisfactory connection/contact. Per my recollection, it was near the firewall, right to the middle of the block, pretty far down.

[kabonk]

Thanks for the tip, I will check the connection. I would expect that a bad cam position sensor would show up on a code scan.

I checked for spark earlier and have spark and can smell fuel ( will check an injector with a noid light later tonight).

Since I can't get a link with my code scanner, I may try a new (scrapyard) ECM. Any help where this is located on this car?

Thanks again for any help in advance!

[shorod]

This is a long shot, but your mention of using a noid light caused me to remember it. A co-worker's Saturn wouldn't start in the work parking lot. We had spark and plenty of fuel pressure. If I sprayed throttle body cleaner into the throttle body while he tried to start it, it would start and I could keep it running as long as I gave it shots of cleaner.

I used my OTC Genisys scan tool to access the datastream and we could see that the computer was sending a signal to the injectors as viewed by the injector duty cycles. I decided to scope the signal to the injectors so I backprobed an injector or saw no signal.

Figuring that I had a bad connection, I unplugged the injector (picked an easy one to get to) and probed the contacts directly. I had him crank the engine and the car started! Ran like crap since only three cylinders were firing, but started and ran on its own. Had a good signal to the injector. Plugged the injector back in and the engine died. Unplugged the injector and the car started again so we drove it to my garage.

I backprobed the injector again and used a continuity meter to verify I had good connection to the terminals. With the scope connected, he started the car and the pulse was as expected, but as soon as I plugged it in the signal flatlined.

Measured the DC resistance of the injector and it was in spec, but with voltage to the injector I could not hear it opening and closing. The injector was drawing a large amount of current. He bought a new injector, we installed it, and the car's been running fine since. That was 5 months ago.

However, since you are not able to get communications to the PCM/ECM, that would have me concerned as well. Ford PCMs have historically been pretty robust, but there's nothing to say they can't fail.

-Rod

[alex boss]

Hello again- Don't know where ECM is- I'm at home and info is at shop- But lets take a small hammer and tap the EGR valve several times and then start the vehicle (optimistic). My thinking is now directed to the EGR valve and it's DPFE controller. If it starts, replace them both, if not, on to other things. Camshaft sensor, crankshaft sensor and vehicle speed sensor are on the list to check out. Alex

Edit:OH, did you jump the inertia switch or just push the button? I know you smell gas, but I have been fooled by those switches in the past. Alex

[99 Neon R/T]

This may be a long shot but if you are still having problems scannong your car then check the cig lighter fuse.Yeah sounds screwy but my wifes did the same.I changed the fuse which was bad and was able to retrieve a code.

[shorod]

Is your wife's older than a 1996? With OBD-II (1996 and newer) most scan tools get their power from the diagnostic port (with internal batteries to operate the tool away from the car and retain settings/memory) and do not need to be plugged into the cigarette lighter socket/accessory port.

-Rod

[99 Neon R/T]

My wifes is an 05 SES for some reason the scanner couldnt establish a link and when I replaced the lighter fuse it worked fine.There wasnt a power supply that had to be plugged into the port it has internal batteries.Like I said it sounds screwy but it worked.

[mr_tw]

my buest guess, my vulcan did the same (when i still had it lol) but it was the Ignition controll modual, it's a easy fix if you can do it yourself, i took mine to the garage and they dinged me 300 bucks, but if the car turns over and never fires then there is a good chance that that is the issue

[shorod]

Originally Posted by 99 Neon R/T

My wifes is an 05 SES for some reason the scanner couldnt establish a link and when I replaced the lighter fuse it worked fine.There wasnt a power supply that had to be plugged into the port it has internal batteries.Like I said it sounds screwy but it worked.

Interesting, I'll have to add that note to my "things to check out" list! Thanks for the tip!

-Rod

[kabonk]

I have not had a chance to work on this during the week. I will try to get it going again this Saturday.

I checked the fuses, but will give them another look.