Hey everyone, my 2011 escape V6 won’t start and I have been reading as much as I can so I figured i would also ask for advice. I just bought this car with 110,000 miles on it. Drives great but the other day I was in a drive through and had turned my car off 2-3 times in a 5 or so minute period. Finally when it was my turn to leave I went to start it up again only for it to crank over several times and not start. Luckily once I tried again it started up and I went back to work.

after work I got it home just fine but the next day I went out to start it to go to work and it would crank continuously even after I let go of the key. I hear that’s a feature? Like smart start or something. Either way I put the battery on a trickle charge for 5 hours and still have the same issue. In my experience with starting issues it’s either spark or fuel. Also I noticed the cranks get slower like the battery or starter started to go. At first it was several cranks in rapid succession and now it’s a few if not a couple slow cranks with no start up. Any insight or advice would be welcome. Thank you!

 

First, get the battery tested, remove and clean all electrical connections suppying power to the cranking system.If the engine is not cranking fast enough, the engine will have a hard time going. Low battery also will affect ignition.Next,check to make sure your fuel pressure is at specs.Finally if the problem still exists, make sure your ignition system is in good working order.

 

Normally, low fuel pressure would affect engine performance at higher RPM when demand for fuel is greater ,but If the fuel pump is suffering due to insufficient power available to it it will not perform well at idle, but as soon as engine speed is increased the alt produces addl power and the pump operates faster , and sufficient fuel is available. If you want to check something you could make sure all the connections at the back of the vehicle are clean. There is a fuel pump module that might not be supplying sufficient power to the fuel pump. Not knowing your mechanical expertise, suggest you have a shop verify it is not malfunctioning due to a possible corrosion problem where it is mounted.

 

Low fuel pressure often causes long crank times. It takes a lot of fuel to start a cold engine. Seen it many times.