intermittent starting problem

[nonamekid]

I need some help guys. Saturday night i got to my car after it had sat for 8 hours and i started it up and pulled forward a little bit to adjust my headlights on a wall and then turned it off. after i was done adjusting them i went to start, went in reverse for a second and it died. Then i went to start it and all it would do is crank and crank. No starting. After 5 minutes it finally started, but would surge up and down. I kept my foot on the gas a little to keep it from dying. it would go from 2500 to 3500 rpm. it finally ran smooth and i was able to drive it home. It ran fine all sunday. Monday morning was fine, and then i drove to the furniture store after work and then to the gas station, and then it did the same thing again. I couldn't get it started. My brother-in-law came over and I was able to confirm that I had spark when it would not start. It sounded like it was getting a little fuel, because it was making a little noise, but not much. I went to the car this morning and it fired right up. I don't understand this one. Help would be appreciated.

On a side note. The car has had a bad ground at the battery and it wouldn't start sometimes unless i played with the battery cable. Could this be the problem?

[TPR950H]

I think I have a similar issue. Sometimes it starts, sometimes it doesn't. When it does start, it doesn't really have trouble starting, just fires up right away. I haven't had much time to look into it though, being that I only purchased the car last weekend.. wish I could be of more help, but you are not alone!

What is the sound it makes when it doesn't start? Just the crank crank sound? Not a chattering/clicking sound?

[miami man]

mine does that and it was a loose plug end on the vaf meter box. i can move the wires up and down and the rpms increase and decrease as i move it up and down also it would not start until i moved it.

[nonamekid]

When it doesn't start, it just cranks and cranks. I only get the chattering/clicking sound when I have a bad battery connection.

I thought it could be the vaf plug because there has been mention of that before, but when it was running I played with it and it didn't make a difference.

[Pu241]

Which car?
Auto or manual?
Carb or FI?

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3590

[nonamekid]

uh... my 1991 L is the only festiva I have. being a 1991 it is FI. It is a manual transmission, but I seriously doubt that makes a difference.

The Taurus and the 240 i will go to other forums to get help on those.

[Pu241]

uh... my 1991 L is the only festiva I have. being a 1991 it is FI. It is a manual transmission, but I seriously doubt that makes a difference.

Sorry from your sig I could not tell what you still owned and what was parted/sold.

It is possible a bad ground is causing this as the ECU might not be getting a good signal from a sensor. Might want to clean some of the major grounds up and see if the other are intact if they are hard to get to and see if that helps. Cheap and easy at least!

[nonamekid]

i was hoping it could be just a ground problem. Next time it happens i am going to play with the battery cable and see if it is the ground at the battery. i know the ground on the right side of the motor by the shock tower is not connected because the bolt is broken.

I have had alot of festivas.

[Pu241]

i know the ground on the right side of the motor by the shock tower is not connected because the bolt is broken.

Mine was too, so I just got some 10 gage insulated wire solder on new connectors and bolted one end to the lift hook and the other to the shock tower. Did seem to help my car idle better!
I had 15 Festiva's at once, till the wife couldn't tolerate them anymore!

[FestYboy]

try cleaning your ecu grounds. the ecu is a ground side switch for your injectors so if the ecu has bad ground, so does everything else.