My 2002 GT wy 60k is no start after sitting for a while. Cranks no fire. It fired on time after like 30 cranks, and almost once. I want to try the fuel filter first, but dont know how to depressurize the fuel system. Is there a valve on these under the hood? I cant find one if so. Thanks. If someone thinks its prob. something else, please speak up.

 

Should be a schraeder valve on the passenger side fuel rail, toward the front of the engine.

If you don't depressurize it should be fine. Last time I did my fuel filter I didn't depressurize the system; a few ounces of fuel will come out but it won't spray all over the place or anything crazy like that. Keep your face out of the way and have an old coffee can or something ready to catch the fuel.

Just purely a guess though - it's probably not the filter. If in your shoes I would start down the path of diagnosing a bad fuel pump.

 

If anyone has a link to laymans terms how to diagnose a bad fuel pump. I would appreciate it. Im going to do the fuel filter anyway. I thought if it was the fuel pump, it would not have fired that one time after all of those cranks. THats why I thought fuel filter. But I know so little its scary. I could really use the fual pump diagnose instructions then Thanks.

 

I swapped out the fuel filter on the Mustang, and on the 3rd crank it fired, and things went down hill from there. It idled smooth for about 30 second, then began to smoke out of both pipes moderately severe. Then the idling began to flucuate. I hoped mabe there was air in the lines or something(if this is even possible)and would pass, but after 1 minute it did not, although it did stop smoking quickly(30 seconds). The vehicle had been in the grass, and I wanted to move it 100 yards to my driveway, and I could not get RPM over 1200 +/-. Once I hit around 1200 RPM, it wold drop down to around 500 quickly, regardless of whether my foot was on gas. I have no clue, there is no check engine light, or service engine light. Any ideas?? I really need this car running right now.

 

I went out to try to start it again and it will not start, just cranks. I dont understand why it turned ran those few times right after I put the new fuel filter on, but ran horrible, and now nothing???

 

There's probably a better or more thorough way to do it, but here's what I would do....

If after turning the key on (no cranking), you don't hear the fuel pump priming (faint whine sound that lasts maybe 2 seconds), connect a pressure guage to the fuel rail valve (can probably be "rented" at Autozone or wherever) and observe if there is any pressure while cranking. If it happens to start, verify pressure as well while running. While running, should be between 30-40 psi.

If no pressure, time to drop the tank and verify that there's steady voltage to the pump. If you have voltage but pump isn't working then you pretty much just confirmed a bad pump. Be sure to pick up a new fuel filler neck grommet for when you put it all back together.


Now, there are other things or possibilities to which I can't speak, such as fuel pump driver module (FPDM), pressure regulator, some vacuum reference line thingy I've heard of, etc. But in simplest terms.... no pressure + voltage present at pump = bad fuel pump. Verify those things n' let us know how it goes.