Ford Fiesta Zetec Climate 1.25 (55 Plate) - won't start when engine hot

I have a Ford Fiesta Zebec Climate 1.25 (55 plate) and for the last 3 weeks the car will start ok from cold but when its warm and I try to start the car, it won't start. It tries to turn over and there is a clicking from the glove box area but won't go and then comes up with a message saying EAC Fail. I took it to a garage who thought it was the crank shaft sensor and replaced it (it wasn't that). They also replaced the fuel filter (still wouldn't start). It went off to an electronics garage who ran another diagnostic test and then advised that they needed to send the car off for bench testing and if it was what they thought it would be then it would cost approximately £500 to fix. I couldn't take the risk as I don't think the car is worth that much anyway so told them not to send it off. I picked it up and drove it home and its been parked in my drive for the last 2 weeks. I have decided to go for a lease car, but would like to try and fix it so I can sell it to we buy any car (or something similar). A friend who knows a bit about cars thinks that it could be something to do with the coolant temperature sensor and if it is that costs about £10 to buy the part. The car runs fine whilst running (doesn't lose power or anything). Can anyone help??? Other than that I would have to scrap the car and really reluctant to do this as its a good little runaround. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Lynda

Reply to
loops2902
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I've had similar/same on a ford focus. Not starting when hot but no loss in performance when running.

With the radio off and in a quietlocation and when cold on the first turn of the key, before cranking the engine on the starter, you should be able to hear the fuel system priming for a second - you should be able to hear the fuel pump starting.

When hot do you hear the same fuel priming sequence?

In my cases when the car wasn't going to start I couldn't hear the the fuel priming.

In my case when it happened for the first time replacing the crank case sensor cured the problem for around for 18+ months. At first it was only occasionally that it wouldn't start but over a short period the problem became more persistent.

The second time it happened it was the fuel pump that had failed and the cost was approx £250 all in to fix (small independent back street garage). The fuel pump is fitted to the petrol tank which needs to be removed to repalce the pump. In this case the car wouldn't start 75% of the time when hot.

Both times when hot and wouldn't start sometimes the temperature gauge would go to full scale even though the car had been sitting for 30 minutes. The temperature gauge would then slowly drop to zero scale. The temperature sensor wasn't the cause of the problem. With the crank case sensor fault the car would always start when the temperature read zero. With the fuel pump fault it was a lot more problematic but the car would always start when left overnight or left in the works car park all day and usually when left to cool down for 2 hours.

The link below gives a description of the start up sequence and why the crank case sensor could have been a prime suspect

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scroll down to the article with the lengthy start up description.

Reply to
alan_m

Does the engine spin over at a good speed indefinitely when it will not start?

Reply to
MrCheerful

Uh, oh. Motorsforum.com ? Is the same thing happening here, as happened with uk.d-i-y and homeownershub?

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

Yes but this appears to be an original question posted today.

Unfortunately if the OP replies we on the Usenet will not see the replies threaded properly as the motors forum c**p interface to the rest of the world on the Usenet seems treat every post from their site as a new topic. This is the main problem with people using the home owner hub and its sister site motors forum. The rest of the world isn't seeing the same web page information and their users seem incapable of quoting the previous posts to put the replies in context.

Reply to
alan_m

replying to loops2902, Loops2902 wrote: Hi all. I just wanted to let you know that after 2 garages had looked at my car and couldn't find anything, and told me they thought it was the electrics and needed to go away for further tests at a cost of over 300 quid, the third garage looked at it and found that it was.......the battery! It's running as good as new. I'm part pleased but part peed off because the other two garages didn't pick it up. So a battery cost me around 350 quid. Bah!

Reply to
Loops2902

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