1995 Mercury Villager van- Acts like it's out of gas.

LCONLEY

MEMBER
1995 MERCURY VILLAGER
56,989 MILES

My van cranks just fine when it is from a cold start, but when I drive it for a while and the engine starts to warm up then I start having problems with it acting like it is out of gas. It will spit and sputter then it dies, if I wait a few minutes then I can get it to crank again and make it short distances before it will stop again. I put a clear fuel filter on it so that I could see if it's getting gas when this happens and so far the filter has been full of gas when it shuts off. Please tell me what could be causing this problem.

1 Reply

WRENCHTECH

MECHANIC
20,761 POSTS

That filter doesn't tell you a thing. You need to remove that because they are not designed for this much pressure.

All "crank, no start" conditions are approached in the same way. Every engine requires certain functions to be able to run. Some of these functions rely on specific components to work and some components are part of more than one function so it is important to see the whole picture to be able to conclude anything about what may have failed. Also, these functions can ONLY be tested during the failure. Any other time and they will simply test good because the problem isn't present at the moment.
If you approach this in any other way, you are merely guessing and that only serves to replace unnecessary parts and wastes money.

Every engine requires spark, fuel and compression to run. That's what we have to look for.

These are the basics that need to be tested and will give us the info required to isolate a cause.

1) Test for spark at the plug end of the wire using a spark tester. If none found, check for power supply on the + terminal of the coil with the key on.

2) Test for injector pulse using a small bulb called a noid light. If none found, check for power supply at one side of the injector with the key on.

3) Use a fuel pressure gauge to test for correct fuel pressure, also noticing if the pressure holds when key is shut off.

Once you have determined which of these functions has dropped out,
you will know which system is having the problem.