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jeremy.steiger wrote: I was able to pull the fuel rail with injectors attached and watch for the fuel pressure to leak out. No leak at injectors but did notice a strong raw fuel smell. After some fiddling I pulled the vacuum hose that goes from the fuel pressure sensor to back of intake. With the side that connect to the intake unplugged I was able to capture the fuel comming out of that hose. Every time I pressurized the system fuel was dumping straight into the intake via this vacuum hose. I have read that the fuel pressure sensor has a diaphragm in side that can fail and leak fuel. Does anyone have any experience with these sensors? Should I swap this $130 part even with no cel on?
Wow! :blink: I've never seen or heard of these sensors failing that way before.
Absolutely swap that sensor. No fuel should ever be coming out of it, for any reason. OEM would be nice, but I've had good luck with BWD sensors as well.
If you have fuel coming out of the vacuum side of that, yes it is bad and no it wont cause the MIL to come on if the diaphragm is leaking but will cause a extended crank time and will cause drivability conditions as it causes your fuel trims too go rich do to fuel being pulled into your intake as it becomes a uncontrolled fuel source Then you get a rich code for it. This just may be the silver bullet you've been looking for. I'm sorry I didnt think of that when I was responding to your post as I have seen it many times but I just drew a blank on it until I got the Email of your response. So yes replace it, I may even have one from some old engines Ive replaced with the wrecking yard swaps I've done. Ive saved a lot of those bolt on parts as time has gone by because most of my customers opt for a used engine on these ones. I will check and see if you have responded if you could use one or not. Good find by the way its the fact you were paying attention you found this I've seen it slip by techs before probably to include myself, So again good Job this may be your smoking gun.
Finally I fixed the problem!
The new junk yard fuel pressure sensor fixed my rich condition and hard starting condition. Car fires right up every time no problem. Then I fixed the high idle condition and hanging rpm issue by using a junk yard motorcraft idle air control valve. Fuel pressure sensor $7
Iacv $6
I saved alot by using these junkyard parts.
I will add the ending and sad ending for this car for anyone that has followed this post. My mother in law blew her car up. Before I could fic the last thing on my focus the valve cover gasket that barely leaked oil. We let her drive the focus to work since it was finally fixed and ran very smoothly. Then 3 days later she said it blew up. She said the oil was leaking out from the bottom. I looked under it and the thrown piston rod actually punctured the engine block. So bad that I pulled a peice of metal the size of a tennis ball off the block and could see the crank. She has been destroyed. I changed the oil before I let her take it. Maybe the rich condition leaked into the oil and destroyed the piston rod bearings. That combined with the high startup idle problem. Or maybe the oil leak became more prominent and after a few days she went. Anyway thanks to everyone that helped me out I really appreciate it guys.
I think the fuel contaminated oil that was in it while I was diagnosing and running the engine every day did it. It was a couple of months it had the bad oil in it. Then when I fixed her I put the new oil in but I guess the damage was done. It only needed a couple of long hard drives to finish the job.
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