hfpros
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2019
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
- Location
- Washington
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger XL
- Transmission
- Manual
Starting about 3 weeks ago I started having issues with my ranger starting.
-First encounter
I drove from work to gas station to grab a soda (~1mile), returned to my ranger and it would not start. Cranks fast, no sputtering/turn over. I thought maybe the fuel pump wasn't getting fuel (getting close to E on the gauge and parked slightly uphill). I gave it 1-2 minutes then it fired right up. I pulled over to the gas pump and put about 5 gallons in it. Would not start again. Checked oil, good. Did a quick visual inspection and everything seemed okay, no fluids underneath leaking or anything. A kind stranger and I tried and tried to get it started until the battery died from cranking. Tried hooking up the jumper cables and used some starting fluid and it sputtered enough to disengage the starter then died. Our last ditch was to push it and drop the clutch and behold! she came to life.
When I got home I headed straight to Google university and found a Youtube video explaining that the problem could be a ground issue in the fuse box that connects to the fuel pump relay. His fix was to shove a wire in the ground plug, put the relay back in (with the new wire sandwiched between the ground pin on the relay and the pins inside the plug), and ground out the new wire. I did as such because I felt confident that I was having the same issue and boom worked like an absolute charm.. or so I thought(dun dun dunnn)
About a week after I did the "fix" I started having the same issue. I have been able to get it to crank over by taking out the fuel pump relay, re-seating the wire, putting back in the relay then giving the fuse box a couple of taps with my hand. A few goes of this and it fires right up, some times I've been able to just pop the hood, bump the fuse box, and boom fires first go. Other times I have to try 3-6 times before it'll fire.
I have noticed that when it happens it usually is after I have driven a short distance, shut off the engine, then tried to fire it back up within ~ 1 hour of shut off. Not sure if this is a coincidence or if it's related but thought it was worth throwing out there.
I did originally (before putting the makeshift ground fix in there) try a new fuel pump relay to no avail so put the old one back and returned the new one.
Is this really a grounding issue? If so why did it work perfect for a week then all of a sudden quit working?
Is my fuel pump going bad?
Is there some other obscure issue that may be causing this?
Pictures
-First encounter
I drove from work to gas station to grab a soda (~1mile), returned to my ranger and it would not start. Cranks fast, no sputtering/turn over. I thought maybe the fuel pump wasn't getting fuel (getting close to E on the gauge and parked slightly uphill). I gave it 1-2 minutes then it fired right up. I pulled over to the gas pump and put about 5 gallons in it. Would not start again. Checked oil, good. Did a quick visual inspection and everything seemed okay, no fluids underneath leaking or anything. A kind stranger and I tried and tried to get it started until the battery died from cranking. Tried hooking up the jumper cables and used some starting fluid and it sputtered enough to disengage the starter then died. Our last ditch was to push it and drop the clutch and behold! she came to life.
When I got home I headed straight to Google university and found a Youtube video explaining that the problem could be a ground issue in the fuse box that connects to the fuel pump relay. His fix was to shove a wire in the ground plug, put the relay back in (with the new wire sandwiched between the ground pin on the relay and the pins inside the plug), and ground out the new wire. I did as such because I felt confident that I was having the same issue and boom worked like an absolute charm.. or so I thought(dun dun dunnn)
About a week after I did the "fix" I started having the same issue. I have been able to get it to crank over by taking out the fuel pump relay, re-seating the wire, putting back in the relay then giving the fuse box a couple of taps with my hand. A few goes of this and it fires right up, some times I've been able to just pop the hood, bump the fuse box, and boom fires first go. Other times I have to try 3-6 times before it'll fire.
I have noticed that when it happens it usually is after I have driven a short distance, shut off the engine, then tried to fire it back up within ~ 1 hour of shut off. Not sure if this is a coincidence or if it's related but thought it was worth throwing out there.
I did originally (before putting the makeshift ground fix in there) try a new fuel pump relay to no avail so put the old one back and returned the new one.
Is this really a grounding issue? If so why did it work perfect for a week then all of a sudden quit working?
Is my fuel pump going bad?
Is there some other obscure issue that may be causing this?
Pictures