Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 95 Mystique LS automatic

I took the car off the road for 1.5 years and ran it about every 45 days. When I put it back on the road I had all the belts and fluids replaced. In August, the car just died at a light. I tried to restart it and it would crank but not turn over. I let it sit for a while then it would start and not stall and as long as I kept my foot on the gas a little when I came to a stop. But if I did not keep my foot on the gas at a light - it would die. I had the fuel pump replaced and then I had the overheating problem, which required the impeller replacement.

After those fixes, the car ran fine for 2 months until last night. I came to a stop light and the car died. I waited for an hour and it did not restart - same problem as before - it would crank but not turn over. This morning it started on the first try. Then it would not start again. I let it sit for 3 hours then it started once the first time and has not started since.

Do I have to replace the fuel pump and fuel filter again? If so, can I do it myself and is this gonna be a bimonthly maintenance thing?

You need to determine which of the three key requirements is missing: Fuel delivery, Spark, or air.

Just replacing parts on a hunch is expensive and frustrating.

Steve

thanks for the response -

Is there any way of checking the 3 likely causes without doing a no start diagnostic?

Since the symptom type and random occurance is the same as last time, is it safe to assume that it is likely the same problem?

if it is the same problem, and I replace the fuel filter, how can i prevent future fuel pump failures?

autozone scans codes for free... and they dont even have you start the car...

Thanks for the recommendation. I would do that but i live in manhattan and there are no autozones in manhattan.

Have you guys ever seen something like this before? The car seems to start only once every 2.5 hours. After that, it does not want to turn over for a while. Any idea what would cause that.

When your car die and won't start try this:

Check for spark at spark plugs;
Put key to On and try to hear the fuel pump;

Have your code read.

Nic.

If it was a honda I would check the main relay, being that its not get a timing light and hook it up to any spark plug and th ebattery and squeeze the trigger while you crank the engine. If the engine starts the do it again next time when the engine won't start. So while cranking the engine and it isn't starting see if the timing light is flashing while you squeeze the trigger. If it is flashing the you have spark and likely the rest of the electrical for the fuel system is working. The next step is to get a fuel pressure gauge and test for fuel pressure. If the car fails the spark test don't waste your money on the fuel pressure tester.

Since you have a '95, you can scan the codes easily yourself (later cars use the more-complicated OBDII standard, which requires a separate scanning tool).

It's really simple; take a look here:

http://www.dalidesign.com/hbook/eectest.html

Also note that many early Contour/Mystique models had wiring harness problems. While my '95 still has the original harness and has never had problems, I'd at least keep that in the back of my mind when diagnosing problems in a '95 that seem to suddenly appear and could have an electrical cause.

Best wishes. Let us know how things work out.