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1999 Ford Explorer starting problems

Royalflesh

New Member
Joined
November 17, 2017
Messages
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City, State
Saint Paul MN
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 Ford Explorer 5.0 v8
Hi guys I am new here and this is my first post.

I am having trouble with my explorer. I have a 1999 Ford explorer v8 with the 5.0 engine.

My truck has been very reliable I have taken great care of it. The only problem i have is the high miles, (223,x..) and the exhaust. There is a few holes in the exhaust and it sounds a little loud, other then that it's been really good to me.

Then one day I was driving to work and I broke down in the intersection. I got to the intersection and the truck shut off. I tried to start it back up and it didn't start. At first When It turned over it acted like it wanted to start, But never did. Each time I turned it over it seemed to get a little slower and slower, like the battery was dying or the belt was to tight. But my battery seemed fine the lights were not dim or anything like that. The battery is only about 4 months old.
Luckily a co-worker (who says his side job is a mechanic) pulled up behind me and wanted to try to jump start my truck, and it never started up, and one time it back fired. Cops showed up, and We ended up having to push my truck to my job. My coworker put a code reader in my truck (it was a less expensive code reader.) and the only code that popped up was exhaust leak.
With no codes and the way it died My co-worker thought it could be the crank sensor. I removed the belt to get at the sensor. Removed the sensor and there was a lot of gunk on it. I removed the gunk and my co-worker said my sensor looked pretty new and thought maybe it was all that gunk on the sensor and told me to put it back in. I put the part back in, and I went to go start my truck and it started right up no problem. I went to go shut my hood and I noticed that in the excitement of getting the part back installed, I forgot to put the belt back on. So I shut the truck off and got the belt back on. (which was hard with one person).With the belt on I went to go start the truck again and it didn't start. It was doing the same thing as before as it was starting it was getting slower and slower like the battery was dying or the belt was too tight. I made sure I installed the belt correct. I looked at it for so long to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.
So I thought I try starting my truck with the belt off again. I took off the belt and it started right up again.
I have no clue what to look for after this point.
The mechanic at my work ended up quitting, and I never got his number so there no way of talking to him.

Sorry the story was so long I just wanted to get all the details.


Does anybody have any ideas as what it can be? Or what I can check?
Thanks in advance
 



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I'm not familiar with your particular v8 but sounds like your alternator is drawing all the power, never heard such a thing but there's always a first :dunno:
 






Forgive me for being picky but there is not such thing as an "exhaust leak" code. Please see if you can have the codes scanned again, and write the actual code number down.

That being out of the way-

While you had the serpentine belt off, didyou try to spin all the pulleys by hand? The reason I ask is it seems something might be locked up and dragging the engine down.

Another thing to pay attention to is the priming cycle of the fuel pump. When they go out they can do just this sort of thing to you, and you end up going down the wrong path.
When you first switch the key on,you should hear the fuel pump running for about 1-2 seconds. do you hear this?
when you first switch on the key, does the check engine light turn on?

This thread is a very good tool to indentify issues. Follow the chart exactly and it might just help.

Ford Explorer Engine No Start Procedure


Another thing to try is this. It can't hurt.

2nd gen issues? Try this first!
 






Thanks I'll try these steps. I forgot to put that I did try spinning the pulleys, they all spin pretty good.
As for the codes, my co-worker was the one who had the scanner, and no longer works with me. I don't remember exactly what he said popped up, but he said it was because of the exhaust leak.
I will go out after work to see if I can hear the pump turn on. I'll update after work.
Thank you very much for the response.
 






Something I never thought about is does the A/C compressor clutch engage during starting if A/C is turned on (at the dash)? I'm asking anyone, not a diagnostic question for Royalflash.

I'm probably barking up the wrong tree but if it does, that could explain it turning freely by hand but then a bad compressor putting drag on the engine if the clutch is engaged while it's starting. Then again since I don't know, I would just make sure the A/C is off at the dash, or unplug the compressor clutch power connector to take it out of the equation, or have a 2nd person looking at it to see if it's engaged while attempting to start the engine.
 






Something I never thought about is does the A/C compressor clutch engage during starting if A/C is turned on (at the dash)? I'm asking anyone, not a diagnostic question for Royalflash.

I'm probably barking up the wrong tree but if it does, that could explain it turning freely by hand but then a bad compressor putting drag on the engine if the clutch is engaged while it's starting. Then again since I don't know, I would just make sure the A/C is off at the dash, or unplug the compressor clutch power connector to take it out of the equation, or have a 2nd person looking at it to see if it's engaged while attempting to start the engine.

I read somewhere that the compressor doesn’t engage until the engine is on. Not during cranking.
 






I do recall that once (for a different vehicle) I bought a replacement water pump, put it on and the engine bogged down to a nearly stalling state which it had never done before, yet it seemed to turn okay by hand both before and after I'd put it on the engine, and after I'd pulled it back off. For all intents it looked fine but... went back to Autozone, swapped with another, and sure enough the car ran fine thereafter.
 






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