Skyliner218
New Member
- Joined
- January 24, 2012
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Warroad, MN
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 Explorer Sport
My 1998 Explorer was having issues with not starting and appeared to not be getting any fuel.
It died on my son when he rolled up to an intersection, and would turn over but not start. I had the local shop pull it in, and their diagnosis was a bad fuel pump. I did question it a bit as there had been a few incidents of the battery appearing to be dead when it was fully charged. I had cleaned the grounds and we were not seeing that problem, but in the back of my mind I was also wondering if there could be an issue with the anti-theft system or the PCM.
Anyway, they put in a new fuel pump, and it fired right up after so they said it was fixed. We picked up the truck, but noticed fairly soon that it was having an issue with wanting to die if you gave it too much accelerator. It would dog like that for a bit, then run fine. Shortly after it was start dogging again. We also noticed a strong smell of gas shortly after filling it up.
I brought the truck back to the shop, and while the mechanic added some fuel, I noticed that gas was dripping. Turns out the fuel return line was not connected. He put that back on, and it appeared to be running fine while I drove it home.
A couple of days later it started acting up again and had the same symptoms as before, so it went back to the shop again to be looked at. It sat for a few days and when he finally went to look at it, started up and ran just fine. He let it idle for over an hour and did a quick test drive with no problems. Back home it went with us.
24 hours later it starts running bad again while my son was driving it, and almost did not make it home. I went out to look at it and it would barely run, with the idle going up and down. I was able to get that to level out a bit by giving it some gas, and decided to drive it over to the shop once again to show him what was happening. This time instead of it wanting to die when it was given too much accelerator, it had almost no power unless you kicked the gas down. I was able to get it to the shop and show him how bad the idle was, and also that it was now blowing dark exhaust. Seemed like it was flooding. He agreed to look at it again.
Well, just got word yesterday that he had tried everything he could think of, and basically said the engine is shot. There were no issues prior to this other than it not starting, and when it did start it ran fine... but that was BEFORE they changed the fuel pump.
So, my question is... could that fuel return line being disconnected have started a series of events that lead to this situation where they believe the engine either needs to be replaced, or the car should be scrapped? I would think if it was in that bad of shape, we would have seen signs of problems before this. Really, everything went to hell with that fuel pump change.
It died on my son when he rolled up to an intersection, and would turn over but not start. I had the local shop pull it in, and their diagnosis was a bad fuel pump. I did question it a bit as there had been a few incidents of the battery appearing to be dead when it was fully charged. I had cleaned the grounds and we were not seeing that problem, but in the back of my mind I was also wondering if there could be an issue with the anti-theft system or the PCM.
Anyway, they put in a new fuel pump, and it fired right up after so they said it was fixed. We picked up the truck, but noticed fairly soon that it was having an issue with wanting to die if you gave it too much accelerator. It would dog like that for a bit, then run fine. Shortly after it was start dogging again. We also noticed a strong smell of gas shortly after filling it up.
I brought the truck back to the shop, and while the mechanic added some fuel, I noticed that gas was dripping. Turns out the fuel return line was not connected. He put that back on, and it appeared to be running fine while I drove it home.
A couple of days later it started acting up again and had the same symptoms as before, so it went back to the shop again to be looked at. It sat for a few days and when he finally went to look at it, started up and ran just fine. He let it idle for over an hour and did a quick test drive with no problems. Back home it went with us.
24 hours later it starts running bad again while my son was driving it, and almost did not make it home. I went out to look at it and it would barely run, with the idle going up and down. I was able to get that to level out a bit by giving it some gas, and decided to drive it over to the shop once again to show him what was happening. This time instead of it wanting to die when it was given too much accelerator, it had almost no power unless you kicked the gas down. I was able to get it to the shop and show him how bad the idle was, and also that it was now blowing dark exhaust. Seemed like it was flooding. He agreed to look at it again.
Well, just got word yesterday that he had tried everything he could think of, and basically said the engine is shot. There were no issues prior to this other than it not starting, and when it did start it ran fine... but that was BEFORE they changed the fuel pump.
So, my question is... could that fuel return line being disconnected have started a series of events that lead to this situation where they believe the engine either needs to be replaced, or the car should be scrapped? I would think if it was in that bad of shape, we would have seen signs of problems before this. Really, everything went to hell with that fuel pump change.
