Intermittent No Start/Slooow Idle

[lessersivad]

I did a preliminary search but didn't find the same symtoms.

Car: 1989 Festiva AT, EFI 111,xxx miles.

Car was run waaay low on gas by my son. Parked for a couple of hours and would crank over fine but no start.

1st thought. Dipwad ran gas low enough and parked on a very slight hill. No fuel being picked up by pump. (Let it set for a couple of days so he could discover why God gave him feet.)

Dumped approx. 2.5-3 gallons of gas in so I could move it. Crank, no start. Tryed a few more times, same thing. Resorted to starting fluid to possibly see if it was ignition or possible fuel problem. Fired on ether so ignition OK. Did this a couple more times then it ran by itself with no ether assistance. Hmmmm? Shut it off, started right back up. Drove to the gas station, shut off, after fueling, started right up. Drove home, parked in the garage so I could address the clicking CV joint that I discovered while going to the gas station, (gosh I'm so blessed to have an observant son).

Today after changing left CV shaft, left front wheel bearings and seals, front brakes and doing an oil change i took it for a test cruise of approx. 8 miles to my favorite smoke shop. Shut it off, came back out. Crank, no start. WTH? Bought some starting fluid, gave it a snort, fired but real slow idle. Figured it was running on the ether I tried a few more times with and without starting fluid. Crank, may or may not start, when it did start idle must have been no more than 200 RPM. (no tach, strictly guesstimate)

Called a friend for retieval. Told him in the mean time I was going to dink with it some more. About 10 minutes later after doing the snort/try to start routine it finally run on it's own at normal idle. Free revved it a few times and all seemed good. Closed the hood and headed home. Called my friend on the cell and he said he'd meet me at my house.

Drove home without any problems. I even ran it up to 75 MPH with no hickups, burps, or farts.

Pulled it into the garage, waited, (thinking possible heat soak) tried it, fired right up.

I haven't tried any testing as of yet. Kinda hard to check things out when it's not acting up. I have on the agenda for tomorrow, pulling the cap and checking the terminals for corrosion and carbon tracking. Not that I really think that's the problem, but it ain't gonna hurt.

I suppose it could be possible that the fuel pump is the problem, being numbnuts ran it looow on fuel. (I'm sure this isn't the first time.)

Any suggestions, ideas, flames are welcome. Thanks

Oh, BTW, no CES either.

[doylerl]

You may have rust, dirt, or other grime in your tank that got sucked up into your fuel filter when it was ran too low. Replace the filter, and maybe remove your pump and clean the sock off. If you are feeling really excited, you could drop the tank and clean all the junk out.

[lessersivad]

UPDATE.
I removed the distributor cap today and found no carbon tracking and very little corrosion on the terminals and rotor. Pulled the cover over the electronics in the bottom of the disty to check for oil soakage. Dry as a popcorn fart. Cleaned and installed the rotor, cap and wires. Fired right up. The same as it did yesterday. Drove around today and again, no problems.

So today my son shows up in hopes the car is deemed road worthy and we talkied about the whole crank/no start issue. During the conversation (interigation) and harking back to yesterday a discovery of a symtom arose.

Key on, engine off. All "idiot" lights come on, except when it goes into crank/no start mode. After he mentioned that he had been getting into the habit of turning the key to "run" to check for the CES before attempting to start it dawned on me the CES didn't come on during the stranded deal I experienced yesterday. So now i have at least something to go on.

According to a 1990 factory Electrical and vacuum troubleshooting manual There is only one wire that goes to the CES and that comes from the ECM under the dash. I don't know if the 1989 EFI system is set up the same way or not. I tried to push/pull, jiggle and mess around with the harness undere the dash with key on/engine off and cannot get the light to even flicker.

Any ideas as to where or what I may try?

Note: Gas tank installed new 2 years ago. Not that it makes any difference.

[doylerl]

Check out this link. It could be doing the same to you.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30781&highlight=ignition+unplugged

[lessersivad]

Check out this link. It could be doing the same to you.
http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...tion+unplugged

Well if I can get it to act up again that sounds like a good place to start. Neither of the times it has done it for me had I checked for spark, other than the "snort" of ether trick.

Sure would be easier if it acted up when I WANT it too...

Thanks for the link BTW.

[lessersivad]

2 days and no problems so far.
I did check for cracks and other damage on the air filter/VAF. Also checked to make sure the "door" wasn't binding and operating smoothly.
Guess it's just a waiting game to see if'n it acts up again.

[lessersivad]

As of now, still no problems.

One other thing I did the last time I attempted a "fix" was remove 14 lbs. of key "fobbery". Dunno if that was the problem, but since that was done, no problems so far.