Having the car crank but not start is stressful enough but what really adds insult to injury is replacing parts that don't solve the problem.
What complicates a no-start problem with your Ford vehicle is that a lot of different things can cause it not to start. You might be wondering, ‘Is it the fuel pump?’, or ‘Is it the ignition coil?’ and the list goes on.
Well, in this article (which covers both the coil pack and distributor equipped Ford 3.0L and 3.8L vehicles), I'm gonna' talk about the three areas most no-start problems reside in and then I'm gonna' offer you some ideas of where to start testing.
Armed with this info and where to find specific testing articles, you should be able to find the cause of your no-start issue without the whole thing turning into a nightmare.
Contents of this tutorial:
Important Tips And Suggestions
TIP 1: This may be stating the obvious but just in case it's not clear, a no-crank and a no-start condition are not the same thing. This article only concentrates on testing a no-start condition.
The difference is that in a no-start condition the starter motor in your vehicle does crank the engine but the engine does not start. In a no-crank condition, the starter motor does not turn over the engine when you turn the key to start your vehicle.
No Start Condition Basics
For the engine to start, in your 3.0L or 3.8L Ford car (mini-van, pick up), it needs three very important things: air, fuel, and spark.
If spark is missing from the formula, the engine will not start and so it goes with any of the other components (if they're missing from the mix).
So, knowing that the majority of the no-start problems start in one of these three areas gives you a major advantage when troubleshooting the issue. Let's discuss these three main areas:
1.) Ignition System.
- Depending on the age of your specific Ford, Mercury or Lincoln vehicle, it'll have either a distributor ignition system or a distributor-less ignition coil pack system. Both of these work on the same basic principles.
- In my experience (and in my opinion), the majority of no-start problems lie in a no-spark condition.
- The major components that can cause an ignition system related no-start are but not limited to:
- Distributor Type Ignition
- Ignition coil
- Ignition control module (ICM)
- PIP (Profile Ignition Pickup) sensor, which is Ford's name for the crank sensor.
- Coil Pack Type Ignition
- Crank sensor
- Coil pack.
- Coil pack ignition systems do not use an ignition control module (ICM). The PCM (Powertrain Control Module) is the one that takes care of this function.
- Distributor Type Ignition
- All of the above ignition system components can be tested.
2.) Fuel System
- All of the Ford models covered by this article use an electric fuel pump and if you've been driving a car for any length of life, you know that fuel pumps don't last forever. But fuel pumps are not the only component of the fuel system that can fail.
- The fuel system components that are synonymous with a no-start no-fuel problem are:
- The fuel pump.
- Fuel pump relay.
- Fuel pump inertia switch.
- All of the above components can be tested to see if they are truly fried or not.
