Cold start issue

[bobafuzz]

I have a 98 that have some problem starting in the morning. The engine won't turn over unless I give it some gas, if I take my foot off the gas it would stall. It drives fine if I press both the gas and brake and shift into gear. It only does this if the car been sitting for a few hours.

I took it to a local shop twice and they couldn't figure out what's wrong. Got the car back today and they told me the injector could be leaking into the cylinder and they don't have the equipment to check for this and recommend I bring it to the Ford dealer.

After doing some research I read that it could be any combination of idle air control valve, mass air flow sensor, fuel pressure regulator, and butterfly valve stuck open. Is there anything else that could be causing this? I figure the shop would have checked for all these so I didn't ask them. Are there any cases of leaking injectors out there? Car is welded and have 120k. Thanks.

 

[stephen newberg]

Idle air and air flow sensors are the most likely causes. I would look at those first. Leaking injectors is possible, but not high on the list.

pax, smn

 

[bobafuzz]

Any way to check if it's one or the other?

 

[stephen newberg]

Pull the them one at a time, starting with the idle air, and very gently clean them with something like acetone. If the first one clears it up, you are done. If you get it the second time with the mass air, you know it was that one. If you still have the problem, you are going to have to dig deeper, and at that point I suspect you need someone more expert than me to get into it.

pax, smn

 

[sperold]

It will have a stored code. Get a code reader, and the car will tell you which sensor is out of range.

 

[bobafuzz]

No code. Cleaned the IACV, car doesn't stall anymore but takes a couple cranks to start, going to replace IACV and clean the MAF. Hopefully that will fix it. Thanks.

 

[BamSHO]

Turn the key on and wait couple seconds, let the fuel pump pressure up, should start little quicker. I do that on my 98 here.


Brian Michael
98 black Gen3

 

[stephen newberg]

No code. Cleaned the IACV, car doesn't stall anymore but takes a couple cranks to start, going to replace IACV and clean the MAF. Hopefully that will fix it. Thanks.

Its pretty normal for there to be no code early on from the air system in the areas we are discussing. Sounds to me like you are well on your way to having it all cleaned up (pun intended). Glad to hear its working out.

pax, smn