'99 SHO intermittantly stalling

[JTS03COBRA]

Hi, my sister has a '99 SHO that dies intermittantly. She's had it at the Ford dealership like 7 times. The last time they had it for 3 weeks, it did stall on them but they still couldn't get it fixed. They have replaced a cam sensor, not sure what else though. They then told her to not to use ethanol gas (89 octane) since it was probably causing the problem!! That sounds like a half hearted attempt to blame the problem on something they're not really sure of what's causing it to stall. The car has 97K miles on it. Cams have not been touched. The trans. had been replaced at like 40K miles, don't know much else about what's been done to the car though. It has the Ford ESP warranty for about another 3K miles then she's on her own with it. Wish I could give you more info, but thought I'd post this and see what comes up. A coil problem? Don't know. If I can get more info on the history of the car I'll post it.
Regards,
Joe

 

[wuzzzer]

Has anyone looked at the fuel filter/pump?

 

[SHOZ123]

I use 87 octane 10% ethanol gas all the time. Have for the last 20 years with no problems, Reduced pinging, a very clean fuel system and no water-in-the-gas problems

 

[JTS03COBRA]

Well from what I can gather, the car only stalls after a start-up after it's sat for a short time (from 20 minutes up to 5 hours sitting time). She has said it also can run rough after start up and sometimes the car is difficult to start.
Other stuff done to the car:
Trans rebuilt (twice)
IAC replaced
An ignition coil was replaced
Ignition module? (unsure if it was replaced or not)
New battery last spring
A/C compressor replaced last spring
Spark plugs @ 60K
Fuel pump 2 years ago
I see that someone in another thread has mentioned that the CPS? sensor wire could be damaged from a belt. Crank or camshaft sensor I assume?

 

[SHOZ123]

That would be the crank sensor. The wire runs behind the A/C compressor. The cam sensor is on the front head left side.

 

[ArkanSHO]

The crank sensor, IAC and Fuel Pump were all causes of mine stalling out and rough running. Some others have also had the wires under the expansion chamber on the rear cover melt through, but generally it kills the engine period and is easy to see when the intake is removed to R&R the coils.
Looks like my IAC is gone south again too.

 

[JTS03COBRA]

ArkanSHO:
...Some others have also had the wires under the expansion chamber on the rear cover melt through, but generally it kills the engine period and is easy to see when the intake is removed to R&R the coils...

Don't have a clue what you're saying here about some wires ?

 

[SHODWN]

it could be a few things. Paul hit most of them and it also could be a few other things.

Coil pack mis fire ( some will not throw a code)
A intake air leak (MAF, TB connections ECT)
Faulty IAB
The keep alive memory should be cleared, then tryied again..

Has any work been done recently on the car? and if you could give a better description or the issue it might help others to diagnose it for you.

 

[Jr's Sho]

I hate to post here but Kirk, I have been trying to get ahold of you about your mounts. Please e-mail me directly at [email protected] ASAP. If you don't have any for sale, then please let me know. Thanks.

 

[JTS03COBRA]

Well believe it or not it's still cutting out. The car has been at the dealership 11 times now. They pysically inspected the cams and they said they were ok. I guess the dealership keeps finding a camshaft related code. It seems to only cut out whenever the climate control is turned on and running, the car seems to run fine as long as it's turned off. So I'm gonna assume that a wire is getting messed up somewhere in that vicinity of the A/C compressor and yes the compressor was replaced last spring, perhaps the dealership messed it up? My sister mentioned that a Ford tech had to come and show them how to install the compressor, is it that hard to do? Weird. So, where to find the bad wire?

 

[JTS03COBRA]

Well I got some more info, the car just "cuts out" intermittantly while it's running, only seems to happen when the climate control system is turned on. She was on the freeway Wed. and it began stumbling and so forth intermittantly and the check engine light came on. So she drove it straight back to the dealer and they checked the code as the same one they've been getting all along, related to the camshaft sensor somehow. It has been replaced before in an attempt to fix it. Like I mentioned they physically inspected the cams and saw nothing wrong with them supposedly. So what do you all think?

 

[JTS03COBRA]

Well another update, they did find a bad wire, but haven't heard if it was the crankshaft sensor wire or not but I'm thinking it was since they gave me credit for them being able to find it and they asked my sister if I needed a job!!!! But they did wonder how I could've known without looking at like they did 11 times! It would appear that the wiring got disturbed when they replaced the A/C compressor. THANKS A TON GUYS THIS IS A GREAT WEBSITE FOR SURE!!!

 

[NECGP]

Good to hear it may be fixed.

Advice from what I've learned:

Never trust a dealership with an SHO. Majority of them have no clue about this engine and all the important little details about it that can be easily overlooked.

 

[JTS03COBRA]

Well her car is still stalling and having cutting out problems. madflame madflame Next question from me is this: is the factory covering over the wiring to that crankshaft sensor "shielded" from outside electrical interference in some manner? I hope this makes sense. They only "repaired" the wiring, they did not replace it with a complete uncut/unspliced wire. How about the crankshaft sensor intself or the PCM, do you think these could've been damaged because that exposed wire was getting grounded? Thanks again.

 

[SHOZ123]

I don't think it is shielded. How did they repair the wiring? It may be in contact with the belt again too.

 

[JTS03COBRA]

I'm bringing this up to the top for an update. She still owns the car. She likes it too much . The car stilll has an issue with warm starting after stopping it but it does keep running-the idle just surges pretty badly up and down for about 20 seconds then it smooths out gradually. TPS (wiring?) or MAF (dirty?) sensor issue? I cracked open the t-body a tiny bit about 2 yrs. ago to alleviate sticking of the gas pedal off idle, was that a bad idea? The car also has a buzzy/resonating issue, it seems to be tied to engine speed and you can feel it thru the gas pedal. Can it be exhaust related? The trans was rebuilt last year (rebuilt the Ford reman trans.). It has about 157K on it now. The car still drives very nicely otherwise.

 

[Falls SHO 1]

Mine was doing similar things with the climate control on as well...i replaced both the cam sensor and crank sensors and the problem has been gone. I would make sure that both sensor are replaced again, they are cheap...and relatively easy to replace. If it still does it then you know for sure they are not it!

Does her car have a car starter on it by chance??

 

[warmonger]

did you ever try replacing the ecu?
...is it still unwelded at 157k?

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Your problem is most likely a failed fuel pressure regulator. About a $40 part.

 

[SHOZ123]

BTW the crank and cam sensor wiring is shielded FWIW.