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97 Taurus trouble idling / starting sometimes at startup
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Spacecaptainsuperguy
New User
Mar 1, 2012, 6:14 PM
Post #1 of 2
(1351 views)
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97 Taurus trouble idling / starting sometimes at startup
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Hi,
I've got a 97 ford Taurus with 120k miles. Im not certain of the engine size but it is a v6. Over the past year or so it's begun (seemingly) randomly not wanting to start. When it first started happening I took it in to the shop but of course it worked just fine. It tends to happen after I've already driven the car (ie not cold or first thing in the morning) and usually after I've driven a short distance like to the store.
When I turn the engine over it will attempt to start and may even run for a second or two with the idle very low (around 500 or less) and it sounds like its spitting and sputtering and then dies. Occasionally I can give it the gas and get the RPMs up enough that I can keep it running. If I can get it in gear then it is usually fine. Once I get it running...no problems...maybe for a few weeks.
I don't know the first thing about engines and am not mechanical, but if it's simple I'm willing to learn and if it's just a short list to give to the shop to have them check, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for the help.
SpaceCap
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nickwarner
Veteran
/ Moderator
Mar 2, 2012, 5:49 PM
Post #2 of 2
(1295 views)
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Re: 97 Taurus trouble idling / starting sometimes at startup
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There's no need to give a list of things to check to a shop. They already know what they are looking at and don't like to be told their job by a novice anymore than you would want a novice of your profession to tell you how to do your job. Intermittent problems are as aggravating for us as they are for you because the thing always seems fine when its at the shop. We can't make it act up. Then you get in it and drive a few blocks and it goes nuts. You're going to have to test a few things while it isn't running right. Check fuel pressure with a fuel pressure gauge.
Check for spark with a spark tester. And get your codes read and post the code numbers up for us to see. Might speed up the process to diagnose this quite a bit if we know which system is malfunctioning on you.
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