Failure to start

[Whittey]

So my Aspire fired right up this morning, nothing special. Got gas, started up fine. Went to Wally World, started up fine. Went to the range for about 2 hours, go out and it won't start. I will say that the parking lot there has a pretty steep uphill, but it turned over fine and still no dice. Put it in neutral and rolled out so it was flat and tried it. No dice. Checked all the wires going to injectors and they were tight. Checked underhood fuses, all fine. Pulled all wiring connectors apart and put them back together, still go go. Checked the plug wires at plug and cap, seemed good. Pulled the cap and it was fine. Pulled the number one spark plug and it looked good. Put it back in. Fired up after about 3 seconds of chugging (which is way longer than usual, as it usually fires up immediately). Let it run for about 2min then shut it off. Fired it up again and it took about 3 seconds again. Went to lunch about 10min down the road. When I got there, I turned it off and tried to fire it up again. It only fired up when I gave it a bit of gas. Ate lunch. Came back out and it fired right up.

I'm lost. I'm thinking maybe fuel filter, as it's of unknown age (car has about 115k on it now by my guess). Any other thoughts? 1995 Ford Aspire w/automatic.


-=Whittey=-

[getnhi1]

The good news is its easy to replace, bad news, its a pricey little bastard. Same deal with fuel pump.

[mattswabb]

Just get a Festiva already

Is your fan running all the time? The connector on my water neck temp sensor failed and the car then thinks it is hot and took some cranking to get it to start.

[Whittey]

A festy? Bah, then i'd have to replace everything on it with Aspire parts

I don't believe the fan is running all the time. I'll keep an ear out for it, though. It did get into the mid 80's today (holy crap heat + fat man != good time). Meanwhile i'll be purchasing a fuel filter tomorrow and hopefully get that swapped out before it's time to hit the races.


-=Whittey=-

[htchbck]

check that sensor matt mentioned... mine broke and I had to roll the car off everytime it the engine was warm cause it thought the car was too hot. It cranked right up fine when I rolled it, but it wouldn't fire when I tried to use the ignition. I would say try rolling it off and see if it cranks easy that way, but don't try that in an auto, hehe... oh, and don't even try to whine about "mid 80s" its already getting above 95 here in Georgia, lol

[packrat427]

Whittey, I have never worked on a Aspire ,but does it have the little fusible link box ,
mine done that the other night ,all was fine and when we came out ,no start ,wiggle fusible link wire and it fired right up , they are now replaced with the relays

[Whittey]

It's got a row of fuses on the drivers side fender, but those all looked well. I went a half dozen places today and shut it off every time. Each time it fired right up (and I neglected to change my filter, hehe). I'm kinda lost as to what the problem was.

Can fuel injected engines get vapor lock?


-=Whittey=-

[packrat427]

Out of all the FI cars that I have ever owned ,I never had one vapor lock ,they should not with a fuel loop that returns the fuel to the tank ,it should have fresh fuel in the rail all the time ,only the fuel in the injector would be hot on a restart ,and should come right out of it if any hot soak occured .
Something I have noticed lately that has never happened on mine ,since warmer weather 100' yesterday in the sun on a hot restart the Idle is very low for a min or so then it picks back up ?
I blame alot of it to the poor quality of fuel lately, They are adding alot of ethanol to the fuel ,and ethanol has a low boiling point and will cause a issue simular to vapor lock,but I dont think that is what you have going on.
Just for the heck of it ,clean all of your spade terminals in the box ,with a fingernail file ,you may need to trim the file for it to fit in the hole , and plug them back in .

[gdawgs]

hehe... oh, and don't even try to whine about "mid 80s" its already getting above 95 here in Georgia, lol

98° up here in North Dakota the other day.

[Whittey]

I'm a fat man. There are two things fat men don't do. One is heat. The other is stairs. Give me 0f-60f and i'll be a happy boy.


-=Whittey=-