thestateofmark

Hello all, ive got a 97 Taurus GL 3.0L and up untill yesterday it worked perfectly, its got 152000 miles on it but it runs magically, or atleast it did. I drove up to cvs earlier no problems, I parked it went inside, came back out 3 hours later and was about to drive to my buddies house when the car wouldent start. It sounds like its trying to start but it never takes off, or it sounds like a car that your trying to start and it has no gas in it. Im not really a car pro or anything, I checked all of the fuses under the dash and in the front but there all fine no burnt out ones. Any help or ideas would be appreciated, it doesnt seem like this is a big problem and the solution is right under my nose but im just not car savvy enough to figure it out.

Thanks -Mark

p.s. also when I try to start the car with the hood open it smells like gasoline

thefonz

Pull the spark plugs and see if they are wet. If so you may have some fuel injectors leaking down. Of course, also do the usual things, check for spark at the plugs, check fuel pressure at the fuel rail.

thestateofmark

thanks for the reply, anyway I left it overnight to work on it during the day, i tried starting it this morning and it started first try with a hiccup, after that all the times i tried to start it it worked fine, is there something i should worry about or did the engine flood or something

jamiemurray

If the car is still starting now i wouldn't worry about it. If the problem recurs though it might be a compressed cylinder in the engine. I had that problem with a Nissan Bluebird SSS 1800 and it started later on that day with a few hiccups. I got it checked the next week and it turned out one of the spark plugs had got wet (due to driving in torrential rain the night before for 100 miles in the country) but it had dried out. However the next day leaving a supermarket it refused to start again so I got it jumped and drove to the garage. Turned out the spark plug had somehow short circuited. Got the plug replaced and away I went. Sold the car 2 months later due to complete failure of all the electronics. Hope this helps.