98 Mustang V6, Won't Start

bloodmechanic

Member
Oct 24, 2014
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Hello I am new here and need help!
Have not had a problem with my 98 Mustang until the past few months that I couldn't fix, or have someone fix for me if I bought the part.
A little background which may be too wordy.
Car has just short of 170k miles. Had a problem, started car. It ran for a few seconds and stalled out. Started again and it ran with no problem. This happened intermittently. Yes, the check engine light was on.
Had a problem with losing power and acceleration about 3 months ago after driving on the Interstate (70 mph), then ran into a traffic slowdown. Got to my off ramp and a traffic light, when I put foot on gas it acted strange, would not get up over 20 mph and had to limp to where I was going to. Turned off car, and let it sit for a few hours and everything seemed fine. Problem didn't recur until a few weeks later, drove fine and then again started to not accelerate past 20 mph, limped for a while, shut it off and everything was fine again.
Latest problem occurred on a long trip, had cruise control engaged at 70 mph. After about 100 miles, it started to hesitate and lose speed. Stopped, turned it off in a rest area for about 15 minutes and completed trip.
Went to a mechanic to describe problem. He mentioned something about the throttle body being dirty or freezing up. Said he could not work on it unless he could repeat problem.
Fast forward to 3 days ago... started car to put it in a position to fix a wheel bearing problem and jacked it up from right front. Finished with that, decided to try cleaning the throttle body, followed instructions to clean it with out dismantling it. Put everything together, tried to start it. Would turn over fine, but not start!
Now, I am frustrated from reading threads and trying to figure this all out. I don't have any error codes, and am old school when it comes to figuring problem. Last car I owned was a '64 Chevy Bel Air, that had no electronics to worry about, so straight forward trouble shoots,
Please help, with locations of what I am checking please?
 
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Can hear the whine, have pressure at the fuel rail Schrader valve. Had a friend come over to help with that, checked for sure there is no spark. He had a code reader, but the scan turned up no codes.
He said that it was possibly the ignition coil pack.
Went to parts store to purchase that, then some guy that owns a garage mentioned the Crank Position Sensor would go out before that. He said that I should have checked all of the spark plugs, to see which were not firing. So, now I have a Crank Position Sensor, but not the ignition coil. Seems there is A GREAT DISPARITY in opinions and prices to parts online and offline. Going to order the coil from online, since I hope that I can save half the price, seems right now that I have lots of time on my hands to figure this all out.
Really just need to get this car on the road, so am waiting on getting an 8mm deep socket to get CKP off and put on. See what this does...
Thanks for your reply.
 
Update of my situation... replaced the Crankshaft Position Sensor. It had dirt on the magnetized area, but then I broke it getting it off also. Car fired right up as if there were no problem. Hooked another scanner up to it, still have a check engine light on, but not giving me any codes.
Now have to fix the initial problem I had, replace the wheel bearing assembly on the passenger side. Upper bolt on the caliper is a bear to take off. Any advice on how to loosen it, if wrenches will do nothing but round off the head? Have a socket that is supposed to take it off even if it is rounded, but won't grip. Back to the frustration! Any suggestions?