tomc3

Update - it was the fuel pump!! Waht's really upsetting about this is I replaced the entire fuel pump module with the correct Motorcraft module...it crapped out in about 3 months!

Car was taken to a repair shop - they misidagnosed this as AIC (replaced)...car died while test driving (this time it died for good...did not restart as previous. They dropped the tank and replaced the fuel module and it's running fine now. I have replaced fuel pumps in several cars without having any issues, so this early-life failure is really unusual. I did buy from Amazon..."shipping damage"??? carton was not crushed or anything - wondering if jostling during ship? Crazy...but fixed now.

Q: would running E85 cause failures like this? Car is my daughters...not sure what fuel she's buying/running....

That's what's strange - I bought and installed a brand new motorcraft fuel module within the last 4 months. The car was having the infamous "1/4 tank syndrome", so I knew that was the issue (yes, it's returnless). I suppose it's possible it's early-life-failure, but the car seems to run fine otherwise and does start up (eventually) once it hits this condition.

*If* it was fuel pump, I'd presume i'd get sputter and other drivability problems vs sudden shut down?

more info:

happens soon after starting/driving (has now happened 3 times)
happens while shifting (so not coming to a stop necessarily)
car does not start up right away after this, but does eventually start and seems to be fine.
just prior to the issue, car seems to buck, then die

Terry - thanks for the reply - i've done some research and seen some posts wrt the main harness coming out of this:

Check the 4-wire red harness that goes from the battery positive terminal to the power distribution box al this thread: http://www.contour.o....o-Power-Center . Mine was arcing to the battery tray and causing intermittent stalling. Repair of the harness fixed that problem (2.5 years ago).

http://www.contour.o...to-Power-Center

the car is a '99, so I don't think it should have the kind of wiring problems I had on my '98 csvt (wire sheaths simply flaking off, etc..). is the above what you're referring to? Would a '99 csvt have wiring problems like prior years? Or is there some place specific I should look at?

bank 02 has been a problem for the previous owner (who went to the expense of replacing the pre-cat on the front, if I recall...lots o' dough to do that - I'm more inclined to do mil eliminators).