stewart_island

My XR has started giving me grief at startup and several trips to the garage have made no difference. Used to fire perfectly after 5 or 6 cranks. When it's playing up you have to turn the key right off and try again and again before it will start. The problem is intermittent, maybe 5 or 6 times out of 10 it will fault but is getting worse. I believe it's electrical as there's a signal to the puter missing and no spark when the fault is there. So far I have changed the TFI, dizzy and coil.

The engine will sometimes stall when idling and cut out momentarily when cruising but pick up again. It has also died completely with foot flat going up a steep hill, took much cranking to get going again.

Anyone got any ideas on this?

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XR8ED

B-1B

Check the fuel pump relay as this sounds like the same symptoms as a mates a few months back.

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ED GLI V8

I had the same problem a few months back turned out to be the smart lock module

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1994 ED FALCON GLI 5.0 V8 POLYNESIAN GREEN
usc body kit; tints; auscar cobra's; king lows; pacemaker extractors & 2.25 twin system

!Gn|T|0n

Oh dear not another one... sorry to hear about this mate, I hope my thread can give you some ideas on what to check out...

EL Fairmont starting problem - HELP!

TICK4D

I had a similar problem with my EL, it wouldn't start sometimes (not even turn over) the idiot lights come on but nothing. Seem to be on a hot day mostly or when the dash was in the sun for long periods.
Asked Ford, they said it could be the smart lock system.

What i did in the end was smack the top of the dash real hard above the instrument cluster and bang she would fire over.

Used to sh!t me to no end, good anti theft device though.

stewart_island

Thanks for the ideas, SmartLock sounds like a good candidate as I have had the light stay on or flash somtimes when I get the starting problem. I suppose the damn thing is buried right up in the dash. Any idea if it can be disabled to prove the fault or swapped with my fiance's one (she won't like that too much!) to test.

Cheers

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XR8ED

TICK4D

My dealer said it is hard to get too (not sure on that if i canbash the problem away) and will cost $300 for him just to look at.
Obviously it never happened....lol

AU1XR8

Does it just cut out on you as well - randomly?

My wifes EL I6 was doing this and it wouldn't start for a good 10 mins after. As you said idiots lights plenty of crank but no spark.

After checking here it was suggested it might the crank sensor and sure as shiiite it was, pretty cheap fix.

Hope this helps you somewhat

TopGhia

Is it cranking when you try to start it, or is it just "dead".

Could be your neutral safety switch on the blink. If it's cranking, it's not that.

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!Gn|T|0n

If the car is cranking but not starting (esp if the smartlock light is ON when trying to start) you may find that smartlock is not sending the injector enable signal to the ECU. Hence when the car is cranking it still wont fire as there is no fuel. To get to the smartlock module (BEM) have a look on fordmods, there are pics there. You need to remove the stereo facia. Undo the bolts holding the front of the dash in and remove that, then you can remove the screw holding the bem in which sits just above your left knee and slide it out.