I've got a 2014 Ford Escape SE 1.6l.. I've posted in this forum before but I lost my password and the reset doesn't seem to work..
On the way to work today my car just died (again), showed the battery and oil symbols. This happened twice before - first time my idler pulley went out, second time it was the ignition coils and a grounding problem. They replaced the coil and added a (small) ground directly from the coil to the engine block and things seemed to be fine.
Now.. the same thing happened again. The only difference here is that I was well below 1/4 tank as I'd found out the fuel station I'd been using was crap and needed to "go low" before I switched companies. I had maybe 1/2 gallons in the tank when this happened.
After it died, it started back up again just fine and I went straight to the station and added enough to get just above a 1/4 tank. It seems to be running fine but this is really starting to get to me. I have a long trip scheduled for next weekend and I don't want this to happen again. Is there a chance its related to the low fuel and the pump was getting stressed or do I need to have them recheck all the grounds and such again?
Thanks!
It's worth noting that the plugs were changed out with double iridium (bosch) and the oil was changed (along with filter) 350~ miles ago. The battery is 3 months old. Oil was full synthetic.
The oil pressure light and alternator light (battery light) always come on if the engine dies. The spinning engine drives both the oil pump and alternator. When the engine dies, neither the oil pressure or system voltages are in the correct range, tripping the lights.
Any codes?
If you were critically low on gas and were on and an incline, it's possible you starved the fuel pump of gas. Don't drive until you're that low on gas anymore. If the "bad" gas is running the engine, then 3/4 a tank of good gas will dilute 1/4 of "bad" gas.
Well I wasn't really on an incline per say..
I live in Ghana (West Africa) and I was on a backroad that is very uneven for at least 1/4 mile. I was going slow but the back and forth may have starved the pump of fuel if it was sloshing around too low (come to think of it).
Rule of thumb is that I never go below half but my mechanic had told me to go as low as possible before refilling this time.
He's good but.. he's no Scotty 🙂
You should never let a fuel injected vehicle get below about a 1/4 tank of fuel. Big problems can occur.
So I think the consensus is: under 1/4 tank = problems which most likely caused my stall. Got it.
I'll make sure to put it well above 1/4 as soon as I leave work..
I appreciate your guy's help!
under 1/4 tank = problems
This is nonsense.
There's a problem with either the fuel or ignition system. Trying measuring your fuel pressure.
