Turns over but no start

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Mister Grieves

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I've had my 93 Lincoln Mark VIII for about 9 months. It's been quite a headache with some of the things that have gone wrong with it and me living paycheck to paycheck and having just had a daughter, but I still really like the car.

The other day I go to start it and it just turns over without starting, almost as if it's getting no fuel. It ran fine the night before.

Some questions:

1. How do I properly reset the fuel pump cutoff switch? I pressed it down and then just popped it back up and disconnected and reconnected the battery, but still no start. Am I doing something wrong?

2. I searched the forums beforehand and saw someone mentioned a fuel pump relay. Aside from normal maintenance, and because I can find no documentation on this vehicle (i.e. a Haynes manual) I am clueless as to where the fuel pump relay is and would like to know it's location so I can replace it.

3. Is there another vehicle equivalent that Haynes makes a manual on that would suit me for my Mark?


This forum is great and has gotten me thru most of my other issues I've had.

Thanks.
 
OEM manuals from eBay are best, everything else is a joke. THe fuel cut-off switch should remain pressed down. If its popping then you may not be getting fuel.

So lets start there. At the end of the fuel rail is a valve, like a bike tube valve. Remove the cover and CAREFULLY press the center in. If you get a really good squirt, you have fuel pressure - may not be enough to start, but we know you dont have 0 pressure.

Next as said above, crank position. Just unplug it and plug it back in. Its a squeeze type connector, so squeeze the correct direction to remove. Its located next to the AC compressor on the bottom left side of the block. Pretty much the only thing on the block down there with wires.

The fuel pump relay is located in the black box next to the coolant reserve. I forget which one, but they are black boxes. I think is the first or second one from the back of the box. But its easier if you just turn the key to the on position, you will hear the pump run for about 1.5 seconds. Its not loud, but noticeable.

The fuel pressure regulator can fail too. If you are not getting pressure, yet the pump is engaging then there is a chance that it is the problem. But still a guess without knowing the actual furl pressure.
 
Mister Grieves said:
The other day I go to start it and it just turns over without starting, almost as if it's getting no fuel. It ran fine the night before.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a crank sensor wire connector issue but could be a fuel pump also. Has the car been hesistating or pinging under load recently?

How many miles on the car?
 
The car has 117,000 miles on it.

I disconnected and reconnected the crank sensor cable last night. Still wouldn't start. Today I brought in all the relays to work and tested them, but they were fine.

Before this happened, the check engine light would intermittently come on sometimes during hard acceleration, but would then go out. Also for about the last 6 months, sometimes (as in about 1 out of 4) about 30 seconds after initially starting the car it would stall out and I'd put it in neutral and start it back up with no problem again for the rest of the ride, no matter how long that would be.

Someone told me my o2 sensors were likely going bad and causing this, but since it only did it during the first time starting it and once I restarted it never died again, it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. But I wouldn't think that bad o2 sensors would completely keep it from starting.
 
Sounds like you may have a dying IAC (Idle air control valve). That would maybe cause the initial stall outs. But the 02 sensors are ignored during start up, unless the engine is already at operating temp. Basically the car ignores them until heated up. No matter what, your right, they would not cause a no-start issue.

It could still be a bad crank sensor. You need three things, spark fuel and air. The crank sensor control spark, when bad - no spark = no start. Cam position could be an issue to, but would not cause a no-start.

Did you do the fuel tests as described? Listen for the pump?

You could also try starting it with throttle slightly down. I dont know if its possible, but maybe the IAC is frozen closed? Thus no air?
 
Mister Grieves said:
Before this happened, the check engine light would intermittently come on sometimes during hard acceleration, but would then go out. Also for about the last 6 months, sometimes (as in about 1 out of 4) about 30 seconds after initially starting the car it would stall out and I'd put it in neutral and start it back up with no problem again for the rest of the ride, no matter how long that would be.
Click to expand...

Still bet it is a failing fuel pump. It is just not delivering enough gas to turn the car over and then the motor floods out. I'd check the fuel pressure if you get the car started.

Also, how old are the plugs? If the gap gets too big, you'll create a no-start situation also, especially in cold weather when the engine is dumping fuel and the spark is not right. EFI cars flood real easy.
 
unity said:
Did you do the fuel tests as described? Listen for the pump?
Click to expand...

Yes. Thank you for describing the process, as I would have had no idea where to begin.

When I turn the key I believe I can hear the fuel pump for about a second, followed by a couple of clicks. Also, when I pressed the valve on the fuel rail, a few cc's of gas squirted out.

Hopefully that is a good sign, but does it completely rule out the fuel pump as the culprit? I would think so, considering that it does not start at all.
 
It does not rule it out completely, but it narrows it down. Sounds like the pump is running. Squirting fuel is a good sign, but the fuel pressure regulator could be the problem. Its hard to tell without and exact fuel reading.

You could try just replacing the crank position sensor. I think its a pretty cheap part, like $15, but a bit of a pain to change. This would rule it out, then maybe the fuel pressure regulator.

Its hard to say for sure without the right tools (fuel pressure tester). You could remove a spark plug next, position the body of it while still on the wire against a good ground and try to start her up. If you see a spark my money is on the regulator, no spark, its crank. Just dont get zapped if you remove the plug and try to turn it over!!! :)
 
Removing a plug would also let you observe if its fouled. If you been cranking it over without start repeatedly, its never going to start as the plugs are fuel soaked. A weak set of plugs may not start a car fast enough before they foul to the point to where its never going to start because of fouling. Go from there.
 
Yep. For as easy as it is to change spark plugs on this car, that's where I would start. Walmart Autolite 764's for about $1/pc. Gapped to 48.
 
Today I hooked up a code reader to The Mark and it gave me this error: "CROWD Vacuum Switch circuit is always closed."

Has anyone else ran into this before, and is there a way for me to fix this problem?


I bought the Autolite 764 plugs and will be replacing them after I get this other thing taken care of.
 
The Mark started inexplicably with no problem yesterday right before I was getting ready to push it into the garage from the street.

I drove it around the block and it seemed fine. However, as I had not done anything to the vehicle that would fix the problem, I am still concerned it will happen again in a more inconvenient location than in front of my apartment.

So I bought a fuel pressure gauge and the fuel rail was reading around 35 psi while it was running. According to the OEM manual I bought off ebay, as was wisely recommended to me here, this is acceptable.

The question I still have is can any of the problems that have been covered here, and possibly been ruled out, be intermittent to where the car may not start again or does anything point to a new possible problem I should investigate?
 
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