Car Got Tired

[Gobird]

I had one problem with my Bird going to Florida last week. After driving for 16 hrs stright we pulled into a WallMart to pick up a six pack. When making the left hand turn into the parking lot the car just shut off. I put it into park and it started right up again. It never happened again. The temp was ok and had a 1/2 tank of gas. I told my dealer about it and they haven't had any others have that happen to them. Has anyone had a problem with this or maybe this was just a fluke.
Didn't think about milage but at the time ours only had around 2500 on it.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
a dog a cat and a couple hundred fish in my pond

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[DavidA]

I had one incident where I had just climbed a very steep hill and a fairly slow speed. Just as I rounded the top, the car shut down. Like you, I started it right away and it has not happened since. I'll worry about it IF it ever happens again, but I've put on about 5000 miles since then and it's never missed a beat.

 

[Raida]

Gobird: Not identical, but similar problem: One time, while accelerating onto expressway ramp (I pretty much floored it) the engine really "stuttered", lost power like it was going to quit; I let up on gas, the engine responded and I was able to accelerate, but much more slowly. I took it to the dealer, left it two days, but he could not find any explanation. It has never happened again, although I have tried to replicate it. The car had about 5000 miles on it at the time.

 

[JimmyFitz]

Same thing happened once to me. After driving about 10 miles at about 50 mph, turned off, climbed a hill into a mall parking lot. Once I got to the parking area, which was very flat, I was idling down a lane of spaces and the car died. Restarted right away. Had about 1/2 tank of gas at the time. Never happened again since.

 

[RTBRD_aka_jodrod]

This is not good, I think I see a pattern developing here.

 

[K6RU]

All the symptoms are like out of gas...didn't someone say the tank was split with a transfer pump from one part to the other?

 

[K6RU]

Sounds like a software bug...what we used to call "an undocumented feature".

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Chuck

 

[Gobird]

The one salesman at my dealership said something about a problem in the computer. I think that was just opinion but this could be the problem.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
a dog a cat and a couple hundred fish in my pond

 

[RedBirdDlx]

The computer recalibrates all the time based on your driving habits, speed, change in season (temp, humidity), type of fuel used, etc. These things can contribute to the type of stall you described.

However, it sounds like you may have caught it in an unexpected manuver (highway speed - (super efficient mode) - to off throttle) and it wasn't prepared. It just didn't generate enough idle fast enough to keep running. Rare event and no damage done to the vehicle - just scarey when you lose power assist.

Glad you were able to get it stopped safely and get it restarted. Likely will never happen again.

 

[Gobird]

RedBirdDlx, I hope that that was all it was. Like you said it is scarey if it happened in heavy traffic but that was not the case here. Hope it doesn't happened again.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
a dog a cat and a couple hundred fish in my pond

 

[K6RU]

RedBirdDlx: I believe computer learning of driving habits and modifying operation of the car accordingly is not new...I got it in my '97 car...and I have never had this type of stall. The frequency of 1/2 tank reported leads me to believe there is a real fault here. Makes me nervous.

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Chuck

 

[waitingpatientlynomore]

About a week after I got my car I took it out for a quick ride. When I came to a stop sign the car started to rock like an old car would when the engine was about to stall. The car had about 150 miles on it at the time--now has a little over 800. What strikes me about this topic is that I remember looking at the gas gauge---and yes, it was at about half a tank. It has never acted up since.

 

[icrovop]

I too had the same problem. I was pulling into a rest area on a trip and the car just shut off. I had a little under 1/2 a tank when this happened. I did not make any significant turns and I didn't bring the car directly from highway speed to a stop. I let the car slow down gradually for about a mile. This hasn't happened since, but I felt that it wanted to a couple of times.

 

[K6RU]

If it is a software problem, restarting the car is like rebooting your computer...everything goes back to an initial state. Like maybe the fuel rebalances in the tank??

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Chuck

 

[DavidA]

It seems that many of us have had the same basic experiences. The one thing that seems to be exactly common to us all is that it only happened once. I think it was the computer/transmission training itself and that it won't happen again, unless there's a total electrical failure and the computer loses it's memory. Nothing to worry about.

 

[02tbird]

I HAD AROUND 1000 MILES ON MY CAR WHEN IT SHUT OFF. DID NOT LOOK AT THE FUEL GAUGE. WAS SITTING STILL AT A STOP LIGHT, HAS NOT DONE IT SINCE. NOW HAVE 3200 MILES. HAPPY MOTORING!! 02TBIRD

 

[tbird]

Originally posted by Gobird:

I had one problem with my Bird going to Florida last week. After driving for 16 hrs stright we pulled into a WallMart to pick up a six pack. When making the left hand turn into the parking lot the car just shut off.

Ford has Fuel pump shutoff switches that are designed to cut off the fuel pump and car if there is a major wreck, rollover etc. In a Taurus, you had to open the truck and reset it manually and some people reported them going off over speed bumps, sharp turns etc. Just a guess, perhaps they have evolved it into a system that is reset by turning the car on and off.

Comments welcome..

 

[K6RU]

tbird: Good suggestion. What about the 1/2 tank frequency?

Isn't there a split tank in the new Tbird? I can't check for another week (mine is on the railroad now). I remember a post talking about the separation, almost like wing tanks on a plane...would need to be balanced or switched.



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Chuck

 

[KYbluebird]

The t-bird has a saddle-bag type fuel tank. Each half has a pump and a fuel level sensor. The left pump sends fuel to the right half. The right half sends fuel to the engine, it is returnless. The rear computer module controls the pumps based on commands from the powertrain computer. The two level sensors connect to the rear computer and it sends the info to the instrument panel computer which averages the two and operates the fuel guage.

It looks like a software bug may cause the left half pump to not send any fuel to the right half so at the half full point, the right tank is empty and the pump's pressure drops and the engine is shut down.

 

[K6RU]

Thank you, KYbluebird!

But wouldn't this bug be repeatable under the same conditions that caused the problem the first time?

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Chuck