skinzy98

Alright so this one is kind of interesting. Two days ago, I was at a friends house parked on a pretty steep hill and I only had a quarter tank of gas. I went to leave and couldn't get the car to crank for about thirty minutes even after I put it on flat ground. I drove it home next it drove completely normal. I got up the next morning, and my car cranked just fine. Realized that I should crank my parents car so I cut My car off to get inside the house, cranked my parents car, but now my car wouldn't crank, and didn't crank all day yesterday. realized with some help that we were getting no pressure in the lines but we could hear stuff trying to start. So I replaced the fuel filter (was literally full of gas that when it came pouring out of the filter was black. I had a hard time getting the piece of when I did a tune up, so I was waiting till I could get a metal removal tool, looks like I waited too long) and then I dropped the tank and replaced the fuel pump. The old fuel pump looked fried. We put it all back together and tried cranking the car but it wouldn't start without starter fluid. We took out the main fuel line and it was bone dry. Clogged line maybe? At a loss on that much.
Now the WEIRD part. Two weeks ago I checked my oil and it was fine, and was right beneath max. Went to check it yesterday morning and it was practically empty. I noticed there was a lot of liquid coming out the top of the power steering reservoir, and it was brown. I didn't give much thought to it till last night. Last might while trying to crank the car I realized that there was a lot more liquid on it. I opened it up and it was slam full and all brown plus it smelled like oil badly. I didn't put oil in the reservoir, because I didn't put oil in the car till AFTER I realized power steering had oil in it. Any suggestions? I also noticed that the car now oil on the part closest to the transmission pan where as ever since I've owned this it hasn't had a leak. At a loss for words here. Any suggestions?

skinzy98

Never mind,got car running after fuel reset button. Had a mechanic check the power steering and he said that it wasn't oil, he just felt like the power steering fluid had never been replaced so that's why it looked so bad

corker

OK, kind of tough to sort through your post, but I'll try.
1) you shouldn't have black crap coming out of fuel filter - did you check inside the tank when you had it down?
2) "Fuel pump looked fried" what does that mean?
3) You still have no fuel pressure after replacing pump - did you replace pump only or entire fuel pump module (sending unit and all)? When replacing pump only, It is possible to hook up wires incorrectly on pump and have new pump run backwards - can you hear pump run with KOEO?
4) Power steering issue has nothing to do with engine oil - someone is messing with you!

skinzy98

Thanks for the reply (even though we did get the car fixed) I'll go ahead and respond because I hate it when people try to help but don't get a response lol. The fuel filter had never been replaced, it was really more of a dark brown color that dried black on a green tarp and I did check the fuel tank but it was pretty clean.
The connection ports on the fuel pump itself looked like it may have shorted or something which I know is impossible being in the fuel tank and all, but it didn't look like the rest of the piece. Where the electronic piece connected looked burnt.
I only replaced the pump, for monetary reasons, but turns out the fuel cutoff switch was pressed due to the way the car was jacked up I guess, which is why I was getting nothing after replacing everything. After resetting the switch, it was spitting fuel like a champ.

Finally, I actually asked a mechanic about it who looked at it, and he thinks the power steering fluid has never been replaced. I didn't know that ford used transmission fluid for their power steering fluid, and with it already being dark red, after fourteen years of use I could see it being the color it is. So I'll probably drIn it and replace it.
Thanks you for you ur reply though!

movielover40

Impossible for oil to get into the power steering w/o someone manually putting it in there.

Sounds like someone is messing with your vehicle.

Urambo Tauro

I agree; something's fishy here. The power steering fluid circuits are 100% isolated from the engine's oil system. There are no connections or gaskets that could fail in such a way as to cause cross-contamination.

If your car is not cranking, there is a problem somewhere in the starter circuit. The starter is either faulty, or it is not receiving power. An intermittent issue seems to suggest a bad connection or switch.