Engine shuts off while driving

BAMAFAN92

MEMBER
1993 FORD TEMPO
194,000 MILES

While driving my car it will be running fine then all of a sudden the motor will shut off. After it has stalled it will not crank again it will turn over but will not crank. After around an hour or so it will crank and run good again sometimes not for long and sometimes for days I have changed the fuel filter several times and it does not help the fuel pump is fine. I'm at the end of my rope what might it be.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 AT 9:41 PM

4 Replies

CADIEMAN

MECHANIC
3,544 POSTS

Go to the parts store and by a can of starting fluid. When it stalls open the air cleaner box and spray in the intake. If it starts the fuel pump is bad. It doesn't start than it is something electrical. We can start here.

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Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 AT 10:25 PM

BAMAFAN92

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Thanks for the tip but have checked not fuel pump. Pretty sure it's electric but what would cause this random shut down that is okay after a little while the engine runs good? Not missing plenty of power and it just will shut off.

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Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 AT 10:39 PM

CADIEMAN

MECHANIC
3,544 POSTS

The purpose of the spray is to see if you are losing the injectors. When it quits just spray the throttle body if it starts the injectors are not working. Spray it then get in and start it.

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Friday, June 21st, 2013 AT 7:18 PM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

This issue is most likely an ignition related problem. Your ignition pick up or crank sensor is called a hall effect sensor. These are common to fail when they get hot. What happens when they are faulty is when they are hot they will actually cause a open circuit in the ignition system and this will cause the spark plugs to just stop firing which will cause the engine to just stop running. Then it will not start and just crank when trying to restart it.

To confirm this we need to remove a spark plug and hold it against the block and crank the engine to see if it is firing when this is acting up. If there is no spark then I would replace the pickup and retest.

Please let me know if there are questions. Thanks

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