Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

First occurrence in December:

• Driving 70 on highway
• Suddenly lost throttle response so I pulled over as the engine was sputtering and making a sort of "popping" exhaust sound beneath me before it eventually died
• It would start back up but then immediately fall to a sputter and die again and threw a code
• By the time the tow truck came about an hour later, the car started back up and idled just fine :what:
• Towed to dealership anyway and had fuel filter replaced, the fuel system serviced, and the code cleared (something about fuel I don't recall)

Second occurrence in February:

• Drove 8 miles from work to home and parked the car
• About 30 minute later I head back out for 5 miles and park the car
• About 15-20 minutes later I leave store, start it, and as it lowers to normal idle it begins to sputter a bit and acts like it wants to die
• I turn it off and let it sit for maybe 10 minutes and it starts up and runs fine

Third occurrence in February a couple of days later:

• Drove to the airport about 20 miles and parked the car
• About 30-45 minutes later I start the car to leave. The engine lowers to idle speed and proceeds to sputter/pop/sound like it wants to die but doesn't.
• I turn it off and let it sit for maybe 10-20 minutes and it starts up and runs fine

I took it to the dealership again and of course they couldn't duplicate the issue so I had them replace the pump anyway. Worst case scenario is yay I have a new fuel pump.

It still does this after:

• Fuel filter replaced
• Fuel system cleaning
• Fuel pump replaced
• MAF sensor cleaned
• Air filter replaced
• Spark plugs replaced early last year

Ideas? The Mach has a 120,000 on it for what it's worth. I'm not sure if that sounds like an IAC or something fuel related like injectors or coils. Or maybe I should just throw all three at it.

The bolded is the long story short

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Need to know what is the code that is presented. The FPRS could be the culprit.

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Was the first time when this happened (Dec) the only time it threw a code? Also, what exactly was that code?

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

I feel like we've been left in suspense here.

Do I get a prize if I say it is the throttle body/TPS and get it right?
_

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

based on similar posts I would suspect the FPDM (under the kick panel in the trunk on the driver's side).

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Agreed
Possible ccrm as well

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Did you figure it out?

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Sorry guys. Every time I remember to check back on this thread is usually while I'm driving and then by the time I am home or at work I completely forget.

Latest example: Car was sat from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning and right after I started it the whole car was shaking and sounding really rough, until the RPM eventually dropped to a normal idle (which took much longer than usual... hovered at 1k for a good few minutes)

I don't remember the code exactly. I'll have to see if it's in the paperwork. But yep the first time in December was the first and only time a code was thrown. And that only happened after the car lost power, I pulled over, shut the car off, and restarted it once or twice to see if that did anything. It was after the restart the finally the CE light came on.

That was another option I was going to look into.

TPS and the CCRM. I'll add those to my list of things to check out when I have time. I suppose my first task is to retrieve that CE code.

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

Sounds like the fuel pump going out to me...

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

I think it might be the valve cover gaskets taking a dump on me. Spark plugs have a decent bit of oil on them. I imagine that's messing with the spark. At least that could explain the ignition/idle weirdness, but I'm not sure if that explains my random loss of throttle response/power while cruising at 70 in December

Re: Car died while driving on highway and sputters after a couple hot starts
 

I had some problems with stalling out under various conditions....changed O2 sensors and it went away.

I used my Torque App to troubleshoot a possible lazy O2, they were cheap and easy to swap and no issues since doing that about 5 years ago.