howardsternisg

Hi, I am new to the forum and I would appreciate if anyone could tell me anything more about this or if they have had this problem.

I have a 2001 Ford Mustang 3.8L with 112,600 miles on it. Recently I had a problem where I started up the car and it started shaking violently; the engine all through the exhaust pipe. I turned the car off and after about ten minutes it started up fine. It worked great for several weeks and then I encountered the problem again. This time, however, after waiting ten to thirty minutes the car would basically start up very weakly and then the engine would sputter and die. The car sounded like it wouldn't turn over so it was not the battery, which is brand new anyway.

I had it towed to the dealership, where they at first could not identify the problem. They tried to recreate it and finally they did get the same symptoms as I described. They came to the conclusion that the intake fuel pump was failing and the powertrain control module and constant control relay were also failing. Replacing these items, they said, might not even fix the problem, but after running diagnostics, they could tell that there was a problem with both of those. This problem has an estimated cost of $2,200, a relatively large sum of money to me.

Does anyone have any other ideas here? Are there any of you who have experienced this or something similar to it? I searched the boards and found a few similar symptoms but I just don't know what to do. Please help.