1996 Ford Thunderbird Wont Stay Running

Tiny
JEFFGM07
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 FORD THUNDERBIRD
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 98,000 MILES
My car when I turn the key will fire up for a second and then stall right out. No matter how many times I try it keeps doing it. When it finaly decides to stay running it "idles" very low in RPM's chugging and eventually stalls. Giving it gas does nothing this juct causes it to shut off. I have replaced the fuel filter, the spark plugs. The plug wires, the coil pack and there is still no improvement. When I last had the car moving I took it to a garage and on the computer it said my #3 cylendar had 8000 misfires in a matter of 2 minutes and cylendars #4-6 were in the range of 4-5000 misfires and 1&2 were running fine. Also the computer said that bank one and two were running lean. Im out of ideas and dont know what to do.
Sunday, April 5th, 2009 AT 10:12 AM

6 Replies

Tiny
JAMES W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,394 POSTS
The most common cause of what you describe is crankshaft position sensoe (CPS), or the coil pack. Either will procuce multiple missfires.
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Sunday, April 5th, 2009 AT 11:21 PM
Tiny
JEFFGM07
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Where is the crankchaft position sensor and I already replaced the ignition coil pack its brand new.
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Monday, April 6th, 2009 AT 7:37 PM
Tiny
JAMES W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,394 POSTS
The CPS is on the lower right front of the engine by the crankshaft balancer. Carefully check the CPS harness connector. They have been known to be bad.
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Monday, April 6th, 2009 AT 9:39 PM
Tiny
JEFFGM07
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Ok ill check that and see what I can find.
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Saturday, April 11th, 2009 AT 10:59 PM
Tiny
JAMES W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,394 POSTS
Let me know what you find.
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Saturday, April 11th, 2009 AT 11:52 PM
Tiny
JEFFGM07
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
So far I havent found anything, it all looked to be fine, another symptome that has begun to show up is that when I unplug my MAF it makes the car idle much better and when its plugged in it runs terrible, also when the car is up to speed I have noticed that the engine will shut off at different speeds randomly. It has shut itself off at 3 different speeds and once it didnt shut off, so with all the problems could this point at the computer?
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 AT 1:43 PM

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