Bob1958

My '01 Grand Marquis quit on a highway - just turned right off. I tried starting for about 10 minutes, got good cranking but nothing else. The car was towed to a service station where it sat until the next day, but then started just fine and ran for about an hour. The mechanic only can guess at this point since it's running fine and there are no codes to look at. He's thinking maybe the fuel pump but really has no other ideas at this point.

The only clue I may have is that for the past few days the car has been making a jerky kind of movement on slight upgrades, almost like a transmission slip but more like an engine miss due a bad plug. If I give it more gas that symptom stops.

I'm afraid to take the car back if nothing is done to it for fear of being stranded on the highway again. Does anyone have any ideas what may have caused the car to stall out?

Bert

That would definitly be a hard one to figure out. With all the Crown Vics, (same as Grand Marquis), in our fleet, there's nothing that is a normal problem. Hardly ever have a quit like that. We have changed a couple of fuel pumps, but they were out of the ordinary. There is a check with a scope that shows the wave form and tells if the fuel pump is weak, but you'd have to find someone that has one.

ToxicAdam

Sounds like the fuel pump. A misfire would still crank the car..

Do you use Ethanol treated gas? I've read this will prematurely kill fuel pumps. Ethanol attracts moisture and degrades seals and your tank.

Only one Gas station is left in my city that does not sell the stuff.. They gladly promote it with big signs, lol And their business has lines of cars from people avoiding Ethanol.

Checkout the Police cars being crippled by Ethanol: Excess ethanol blamed in breakdown of police cars -- baltimoresun.com

Bob1958

All gas stations here have 10% ethanol so I have no choice. I don't know much about fuel pumps, but it would seem odd that this one would stop working then begin working again a day later.

Bert

They can start again when they cool off. It can be the fuel pump but it's a guess at this point. In our area, they used to have ethanol every winter for 4 monthes. This was for about 12 years. Now it's yearound. We really only had problems with the older cars. But the mileage dropped.

ToxicAdam

I had a 92 Grand Marquis a few years back that done just that rtg143. They will crank after being cooled down. The fuel pump failed on it because of clogged filters in the gas tank. When I removed the fuel sending unit out the gas take the filters looked like a dirty boot out the swamp. I mean dirt was caked on!

Bert

And that's when the pump has to work harder to pump the fuel. I don't understand the Dodges having only the intank filter and nothing else. Those socks get pretty bad when they're not as dense, like when it's the only filter.

ToxicAdam

Join an anti-ethanol group here: Ethanol Free Premium Coalition

Bob1958

So in addition to the pump and gas tank filters, there is a crank sensor, fuel pump relay, PCM, inertia switch, plus wiring going to all of these, any of which may be the cause.....or not? We'll see what the mechanic comes up with today. I can deal with the bill but I would hate driving this car not knowing if I'm going to crap out at any moment.

Bert

That's right, many things can cause that. Some cars have so many problems that you can easily guess what it is. Let us know how it turns out.