Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Contour Cranks But Won't Start Suspect Fuel Issue

I have a 1999 Ford Contour SVT with about 80K miles on it. The car died the other day and will only crank but won't start. I discovered that if you spray ether directly into the throttle body, the car will start and run until the ether is gone. Figuring that it is a fuel problem I go under the rear seat, find the fuel pump and notice that when the key is turned to the 'on' postition the pump clicks once and doesn't hum like its supposed to. I check the voltage at the cable and notice that it is only about 7 volts. Assuming that its supposed to be 12 volts I hook 12 volts directly up to the pump. The pump begins to hum and I try and start the car but once again, it doesn't run.
What could I be missing. Once again, with ether at the throttle body, and the car runs, I assume there is no ignition problem, strictly fuel.
Please help.

Hello, and welcome to CEG! Be careful about putting 12v directly to the fuel pump. If I've read and understand things correctly, the '99s and up have a returnless fuel system that varies the fuel pump voltage to regulate (or at least coarsely regulate) fuel pressure. So putting full battery voltage could potentially damage the pump or something else if there is a blockage somewhere.

Having said that, I'd start by changing the fuel filter -- especially if it hasn't been changed for a long time -- or ever. I don't know if it would be plugged-up enough to prevent the car from even idling, but changing it at the suggested service intervals will keep the fuel pump from having to work harder, and save it from an early demise.

DON'T try this step while smoking, or if you're overly-litigious, as I suppose there is some risk of some sort invloved. Having said that, there should be a Schrader valve (like on a tire valve stem, only a bit larger) somewhere on the fuel line near the engine, for checking fuel pressure. You could remove the cover for it, cover it with a rag or something so you don't get sprayed with fuel, and carefully push the center pin down and see if you get gasoline to come out. If it seems to be under pretty good pressure, then you should be getting enough to at least allow the engine to idle, and I would suspect that the injectors are not firing.

I've never tried accessing the injectors before, so I don't know if its possible to disconnect the wires from one of them without pulling the upper intake manifold (UIM) off or not. I'm kinda thinking you will have to pull the UIM, from what I recall seeing. Anyway, if you are able to get to and remove the connector for one of them, you can check with a voltmeter to see if they're being actuated or not. If you check from one pin to the other in the connector, you will probably have constant voltage, except when the injector is firing, since they probably switch ground in the processor. I may be wrong about that, but they seem to switch ground a lot to actuate things on cars. I'm guessing you'll need a digital meter, since the pulse rate is probably too fast to register on an analog meter. I'm not sure what would keep all the injectors from firing, since the processor should have a limp-mode strategy to deal with most sensors being inoperative. Possibly the MAF, or some other sensor may not be able to be run without, even in limp-mode. Someone else on here should know.

I'm assuming that your check engine light is not on? If it is, that would indicate a problem with the EEC processor, or one of it's sensors. It does sound like the spark is working, from your test with the ether, so at least part of the processor is alive.

Anyway, good luck, and again, Welcome to CEG!

Marty

check to make sure your safety fuel shut off valve is not close.. the one that cuts off the gas when you get into a wreck.... its located by the drivers side foot area.. just push the swith up or down, cant remember which... give it a try.. sometimes if someone taps you in a parking lot on the front bumper the sensor there will cut off the gas via the
safety cut off gas swich... located by the drivers foot well.. if in doubt you can take the two wires off of the switch and put them together and crank it up to see if it starts... if so the swich might be bad and needs replacing??

Thanks for everyone's help. The filter was changed, fuel cut off switch checked and still no luck. Spray does come out of the schrader valve and pressure is holding around 20 psi. Bleed it and it come back up to about 20. Can't measure pressure at idle since the engine won't run but as we key the ignition on and off repeatedly, the pressure will slowly build. Eventually up to around 40 psi, but not immediately.

Fuel pump still only clicks instead of humming and we tried getting into there but can't seem to break the seal of the tank from under the rear seat. Even with some presuasive force. I did almost run out of gas the other day (almost stalled but got running again) and had filled it up a day earlier when it died. We had hoped to check the screens on the pump to make sure I didn't pick something up but no luck getting the thing open. It does appear that I have the older sytle system with the return hose coming into the tank. Build date was 1/99.

Didn't get around to playing with the injectors yet. Not sure if I want to mess around with the manifold and fuel rail to get into there.

Anyone got any other ideas before we resort to getting it towed to a dealer???

Thanks Again!!

hey,
stupid idea, but is your starter dead? I'm having a similar problem, cranking but it's not starting, and I'm thinking it could be the starter. . .

i've changed the fuel filter before, though, so you can rule that out. . .it was done last year. . .

Suneil

I had the same problem. It turned out to be a very small part.
Crankshaft position sensor. We found this out by using the code reader's troubleshooting thing. So, we went a bought a new Crankshaft Position Sensor for like $25 put it in, and bam. Fixed. You can take the old crankshaft position sensor out and meter it for resistance. The one that was in my car was close to 0.

I would assume that since my car will run when you spray the ether/starting fluid in, that the starter is working, as well as the ignition system. Somehow, it randomly decided to stop giving fuel and I can't figure out why yet.

I've scanned it with my code reader and get nothing. No CEL. We did already test the Crankshaft position sensor and get a reading of about 330 ohms. Seems fine.

do you have a relay for the fuel pump??? if so then check it and see if it needs to be replaced.....
that would stop the fuel pump from pumping gas to the engine...

Strange I had the same problem last year. The fuel pump on my end sounded fine. I know that I could "bump start" the car (push/ engage clutch). The car would just sit there and crank embarassingly. I've tried looking ground wires for the PATS system, and see if it was was disconected and not recognizing the key, but it was OK. Dude good luck. Update us when you find the problem.