Ford Explorer Died while driving. Has spark. Turned over, then battery died | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Ford Explorer Died while driving. Has spark. Turned over, then battery died

452films

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Joined
September 12, 2009
Messages
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City, State
Southern Maine
Year, Model & Trim Level
'99 XLT
So in the past 4 weeks I've put 3500 miles on my 99' Explorer 4.0 SOHC. Today the first series of unexplainable problems have happened.

I have been throwing codes for an o2 sensor and MAF since I got it, but it runs fine, and I just clear the codes every so often ( comes back on after about 45 minutes of driving )

Driving normally, and look down, the battery light flickered once. Figured it was coincidence or something. Didnt happen again.

I'm driving along. 30mph, 1200rpms. All gauges look good. Battery level centered. Heat centered. Oil pressure centered. And I just put $15 of 87 octane in about 10 minutes prior to this. I go to accelerate ( lightly. Planned on pushing no more than 2000 rpms and 40mph ). The car dies. I pull onto the road before mine ( Yeah, made it a couple hundred feet from home. Just great, and it's all uphill so I had to get a tow. Try to restart, turns over fast, and wont start. Got the occasional acting like it will start, but doesn't. I have a slight smell of fuel, but figured I just flooded the motor because the fuel pump still works, and I turned the key on and off a few times to get the pump to turn on.

Now, after I check for spark ( and have spark ), I turn it over and it turns over nice and fast. Then let off, and try again. clickclickclickclick. Batterys dead. The needle for the battery just dropped.

Any ideas would be great. Unplugged the MAF and it didnt even go into limp mode or anything.

Possibly a clogged fuel filter? Bad MAF? Alternator?

Could a bad or shorted out o2 sensor cause it?
 



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I don't believe that an O2 or MAF problem would ever cause it not to start. It also sounds like your battery is on the way out or there's a charging system problem. But that only limited the cranking ability after it stalled.

So put a battery charger on it for a hour or swap the battery so that you can get it to turn over again. I think there is a schrader valve on the fuel rail (under a plastic cap - looks like a tire valve). After you have tried cranking it again, carefully push this valve open and fuel should spray out. If the filter isn't clogged, there will be about 40 PSI of pressure, so stand off to the side!

10 minutes of slow driving sure sounds like the time it would take for bad or dirty gas to disable your truck.
 






I think there is a schrader valve on the fuel rail (under a plastic cap - looks like a tire valve). After you have tried cranking it again, carefully push this valve open and fuel should spray out. If the filter isn't clogged, there will be about 40 PSI of pressure, so stand off to the side!

Actually, if your fuel system is working properly, you should have 65-72 psi of fuel pressure at the schrader valve...I would recommend getting the battery charged and/or check the battery connections then testing the fuel pressure to see if the pump or the filter are causing you issues...
 






Fuel pressure was over 60lbs. Put a new o2 sensor on it. Tried to start it with ether through the intake, not even a putt from it.
 






Could it be a bad battery cable or bad ground?
 






Im assuming I snapped a timing chain. Man this is gonna be a long fix if it is
 






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