94 Taurus Dies In Traffic

My wife's 1994 Taurus LX with a 3.8 fuel injected V6 has been dieing on her. It just dies while going down the highway. It will start right up right away after it dies. I have driven it on the weekends with no problems.

Last night it died and she could not get it started so I picked her up and all it would do is crank but not start. I pushed it off the highway, about a ? block and it started right up.

There is no warning lights and all gauges were normal. The trouble code returns # 21- ECT Out Of Self-Test Range ( if I read the code right.) Has anyone experienced this problem or have any suggestion on where to start looking for the problem.

Thanks Henry

Reply to
Texan
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sounds like the engine coolant temp sensor, easily tested with a multimeter to see if thats the problem, Chiltons manual has a chart in it showing what reading you should get based on the temperature. When my temp sensor went bad the car would start fine cold but once it warmed up it would stall.

Reply to
Petebert

oh and if you do replace that I suggest paying the extra $10 for the one from the dealer, they run about $20 from local stores and $30 from the dealer, the one I got from Napa went bad in about a month.

Reply to
Petebert

Thinks Petebert, the quick reply. I checked the ohms reading on the ECT and it looks like its working. I did notice the connection liked dirty so I cleaned them. I cleared the trouble code and drove the car around awhile and rechecked the codes and there was none. I guess time will tell if it was a bad connection. Thanks again.

Henry

Reply to
Texan

Reply to
coryrhonda

My '88 would do that after running a while. Was erratic and just got worse. Mine was the fuel pump, it was running but losing pressure after it got fully warmed up. Sometimes you could drive it 60 miles before it would die depending on outside temp. . Let it cool down and it would refire OK. Fuel pumps won't set codes. I found the prob. finally after limping home one night and checking everything with it dying in the driveway. I though it was vapor locking at first, that's how it acted, as it only did it in the heat of the day, but checking the fuel pressure you could watch the pump drop off as it heated up.

Reply to
Repairman

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