mercury sable hard to start

mercury sable hard to start - sometimes

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stig - 30 Sep 2004 22:01 GMT

I have had this problem for the past couple of months with a 1994, 3.8
Mercury Sable.
From time to time, after sitting hot for some time the car is hard to start.
It will start eventually, but takes several cranks. It happens usually
when weather is hot. Two days ago I gave up and went to the dealer, they
replaced
the idle control valve, 300 bucks and today I could not start it again. It
was
around 20C/68F. The idle is a bit rough, tacho neeedle mover up and down a
bit.
Fuel pump comes on, fuel pressure seems OK, new spark plugs, wires, fuel
filter.
Until now, there was never starting problem. It starts OK when cold.
I am stumped and the dealer has no idea what to do except wanting to replace
more
stuff at random. No codes in the computer, by the way. Rides well, no
stalling or
lack of power when running.

Stan

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Backyard Mechanic - 01 Oct 2004 01:24 GMT

> I have had this problem for the past couple of months with a 1994, 3.8
> Mercury Sable.
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> stalling or
> lack of power when running.

Is the idle ALWAYS rough.. or just after the problem manifests? and rough as
in erratic / missing or hunting for right rpm?

Off the top of leetle pointy head, your symptoms point to a bad fuel pressure
regulator.

Next time it doesnt want to start.. let sit a minute key off, then floor
accelerator and crank it.

If it starts readily, that is probably the problem.

If it wont start then.. next pump the pedal and see what happens.

Other possibilities:

a flaky Engine Coolant Temp sensor

flaky ignition module.. does tach bounce while cranking ?

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Damaeus - 24 Nov 2004 06:42 GMT

In news:alt.autos.ford, "stig" <stan.stelmach@rogers.com> posted on Thu, 30
Sep 2004 17:01:47 -0400:

> I have had this problem for the past couple of months with a
> 1994, 3.8 Mercury Sable. From time to time, after sitting hot
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> cold. I am stumped and the dealer has no idea what to do except
> wanting to replace more stuff at random.

That's one thing that bothers me about taking the car to the shop. I've
completely stopped making suggestions and giving opinions. I basically
say, "My car does this and does that, and it shouldn't." I leave it at
that. Then that's a good starting point. When they charge me $300 to
replace a part and that doesn't fix the problem, I can bring it back and
say, "I still have the same problem." Then they get to try again, but any
further "replacement of parts" should be covered by my original $300. I
came in to have a problem fixed, not to have parts replaced in a
trial-and-error situation.

I ran into that once when having a fuel economy problem. I spent nearly a
thousand dollars trying to have the problem fixed and each time I paid
again and again to have this part and that part replaced. I was really
screwed long, deep and hard on that. I won't let it happen again.

Damaeus

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