1990 EA CFI Auto stalling - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

10-15-2002, 05:43

Hi Guys heres another stalling story.
Intermittent stalling problem for past year. stalls when reversing up driveway in morning and when deccelerating e.g:coming to a stop sign,corner or intersection etc. Does not stall when accelerating. This may not happen for a week or can happen numerous times over a couple of days. It appears that it may be flooded, blows some black smoke but restarts again. It seems to be worse in the warmer months - can't remember it stalling in winter. Have been to 2 auto - elects. & mechanic They did diagnostic checks but couldn't come up with anything positive. I think they knew what they were doing. We swapped or replaced the following parts to try & find fault but with no success - Distributor & TFI module, Coil, ECU, Map sensor, Oxy sensor, Charcoal cannister, Fuel pump, ISC motor, Air filter & Red & Black fusible links.
Sorry about the novel guys but someone out there must have had something similar.
Regards Alan.

TopGhia · 10-15-2002, 10:29

If your car has an EGR valve, check that out.

Here is a site on vacuum gauge readings, probably nothing to do with this, but worth bookmarking.

www.users.bigpond.com/ergoff/vac1.htm

This is one of the best diagnostic tools available, but not many people know how to read it. (Give the page time to load and the needles to move)

The more you know about a car, the less bullshit they can feed you.

shrekky · 10-15-2002, 14:46

Yup yup yup yup, I too had a stalling problem. Mine turned out to be the fuel pump relay. There are two relays located behind your battery underneath the four other relays (headlight horn starter )
Try tapping these relays while the engine is idling. They are about 25 mm square and 50 mm long held on by a screw onto the side of the engine bay. Another thing i did was to adjust the idle stop screw while it was idling so that it didnt quite touch the linkage. This stops the idle control servo from dropping the idle too low if it over reacts to high idle revs. It still lets the idle servo do its job, its a back up.
Ps nearly sold the car because of the stalling thingy too, glad i found it.

The Fonz · 10-15-2002, 15:50

I had the same problem to an extent. The car would stall at low speed (not under accelleration) and was a utter bitch to start. After loaning a EEC-IV dignostic thingamebob I found out it was the bloody hall sensor, which is located inside the injector assembly the sensor at the bottom. Costs about 70 bucks from memory. Normally when the TFI goes the Hall sensor usually follows it.

XplodEd EA · 10-16-2002, 00:57

Timing perhaps, my thing did the same thing but only in cold weather, turned out the timing was a fair bit out. Things like this are usually really simple things

10-16-2002, 06:00

Thanks for the tips fellas, I will check them out. In regards to the ISC motor I have noticed that sometimes after low revs when the throttle is returning back to the idle position, the ISC plunger doesn't follow the throttle stop back but retracts quickly into the ISC body allowing the throttle to return very quickly almost stalling the car. Does this happen on your EA'S. It is annoying the car stalling problem as I know it is something very small but my wife is putting pressure on me to sell the car. I don't like to throw the towel in that easy.

shrekky · 10-16-2002, 17:41

the plunger should allways be extended when the throttle is not at idle for the very reason of stopping stalling. it should catch the throttle and gently lower it the last bit as it controls the idle speed. Sounds like it might be dodgy to me if it dosent extend when you shift the throttle off idle.

10-17-2002, 05:47

To Shrekky
As you suggested I tapped the 2 relays you mentioned. When I tapped the ECU relay beside the fuel pump relay the motor did stall. The motor also flooded & I had to wait a while before it could be restarted. I will replace these relays. The idle stop screw you adjusted - was it on a CFI or MPFI motor. Is it on the firewall side of the throttle body or the radiator side.

shrekky · 10-17-2002, 20:53

mines a cfi and the screw is on the radiator side of the throttle body. Im not familiar with the mp setup, does it have a mechanical servo or an air motor valve?
As for the flooding, tapping the relays will cause the fuel pump to stop thus cutting the fuel supply. can you smell fuel in the exhaust? If not then sometimes its the relays not contacting properly. Take note of which relay is which as they are different, one has some electronics in it. I used to find that switching the ignition off and then on again increased my chances of a restart.