2008 LTD. Engine shut off - Orange Wrench of Death ??

[pjw73nh]

Greetings,

Not sure what happened here. Out of the blue last night driving home. Fortunately, I was about 1 mile from home, I was traveling at about 40 mph, accelerating up a shallow incline under light load, to about 50 mph.

The engine just shut off. No warning, no sputtering, nothing. Not from an idle either. It was while I was accelerating. I still had full electrical power and all accessories were still functional. The green information display went orange, and displayed a wrench.

As I started to pull over to the side of the road, I shifted into neutral, and restarted the car. It started without issue and has been fine since. I've only driven 5 miles since it happened.

Car has approx 95 k miles on it. I've had it since 63 k miles. No recent work at all (new tires 2 months ago). No recent fill-up. I was about 225 miles into my last tank of fuel, still had 1/3 tank on the gauge. I did an OBDII scan this morning, full I/M readiness set, no enhanced codes, one ABS code.

Anyone?

Thanks...

<Sarcasm on> Oh lucky me. I just found this..... </Sarcasm off>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucUSQJ3-EVk

 

[Butch-Explorer]

Mine did the exact same thing about a year ago. Scare the heck out of me but hasn't happen again. Only thing I found after was water on top on coil #7 .

 

[superinstaller]

Id gheck the fuel pressure first

 

[Kiliona]

I've heard this whole "we can't find the problem, must be the computer" line before... Seems to me it is almost never the computer at fault (1 in 10,000 chance) unless someone did something to actually fry the computer. but that's on older cars who knows about the newer ones.

If it was the pcm, the thing could be datalogged and it'd tell you if when it has this issue if the pcm is sending out wonky signals.

this whole "Its the PCM" thing seems kinda sketchy to me, seems much more likely that it's something else electrical (cps, primary ignition, etc)

Also what the guy described in the video is actually what my explorer does when the fuel pump is going bad (since the tank is rusty my fuel pump has odd symptoms, rust through the pump makes it fail in a weird way) so that tells me it could even be fuel related... fuel pump ground?

my two cents, Good luck!

 

[Explorer_PL]

I had it happening to me every few months out of the blue, especially when I was coming to the stop applying brakes.
I posted a question on "justanswer.com", paid few bucks and some Ford mechanic said I need to clean throttle body. I did not really believe that but did it anyway.
It has not happen since and that was almost a year ago.

 

[Explorer75]

Like superinstaller says I would check the fuel pressure sensor. Inspect the connector and clean if necessary.

 

[Bobmbx]

I had it happening to me every few months out of the blue, especially when I was coming to the stop applying brakes.
I posted a question on "justanswer.com", paid few bucks and some Ford mechanic said I need to clean throttle body. I did not really believe that but did it anyway.
It has not happen since and that was almost a year ago.

Same here.

Whats happening is the PCM is sensing a mis-match between the TPS and the throttle (foot pedal), and shuts down the engine. This is by design, and is intended to resolve a runaway throttle motor condition.

 

[pjw73nh]

Are there 2 sensors in the throttle system? One inside at the pedal, and the other being the TPS on the throttle body?

Tnx

 

[Kiliona]

Whatever is happening, be it computer related or whatever, it will set a fault code (you said a light came on on the dash). It might not be a code that turns on the check engine light, but one will be set. Next time it happens read the codes and see if it tells you anything.

If it has anything to do (the code) with the fuel pump shutuff switch / inertia switch, remember that fords have a nice little switch that kills fuel should an impact happen. If you were to kick it wrong with your foot or hit a bump or something it could possibly go off (but then it'd probably need to be manually reset which makes me think maybe not related)...

Check codes next time, and not just current check history.