so my bud's got a 99 taurus. for some reason, the car doesn't crank after it rains. fuel pump was just recently replaced so we've ruled that out. any thoughts on what else it could be would be appreciated.

11/16/2008 1:01:13 AM

if it really only does it after a rain, then there's probably some kind of electrical connector that's getting water in it. my old blazer would cut off if it rained and some water got thrown up under the hood.

[Edited on November 16, 2008 at 1:04 AM. Reason : found it was some connector, so i taped it up real tight and good to go ]

11/16/2008 1:03:43 AM

won't crank or won't start? If it wont crank i'd check your battery connections. Wiggle and or clean them.

11/16/2008 12:07:55 PM

mix up a spray bottle of salt water, not too salty no real ratio though, just some salt, lotta water. on a dry day crank the car and let it idle, locate your coil packs, wires and mist them with the salt water, dont soak them down, but focus mainly on the coils. if the car starts to skip and sputter when you spray the coils youve got a crack in one. this crack lets in moist air on damp days(after rain) and prevents the coil from doing its job. also def check what ^ said and go from there.

11/16/2008 6:08:43 PM

so as it turns out, the jackass that did the tuneup a few months back used bosch (sp?) spark plugs. apparently bosch + ford = fail, switched them out for motorcraft, started w/o any problems. initially we replaced the ignition coil and that didn't get us anywhere.

11/16/2008 6:32:02 PM

should have just checked the gap

11/16/2008 7:04:55 PM

bosch + any make = fail.

Unless the gap was way off though it shouldn't have made enough of a problem to keep it from starting. Must have been another problem that was either masked or solved by doing an R&R.

11/16/2008 8:34:58 PM

^^^^

great tip.
I'll remember that one in the future.

11/16/2008 9:31:19 PM

Quote :

"bosch + any make = fail."

not true.

11/16/2008 10:20:17 PM

bethaleighs 2000 blazer is doing the same thing.

11/16/2008 10:38:27 PM

[Edited on November 17, 2008 at 1:09 AM. Reason : .]

11/17/2008 1:08:38 AM

Quote :

"not true."

When I was a parts monkey I don't think I had a single satisfied customer with the bosch plugs.

11/17/2008 6:12:38 PM

ive run bosch plugs for years with no problems at all...

11/17/2008 9:48:08 PM

Parts monkeys often have a misguided approach to things, including what kind of spark plugs work well.

11/17/2008 10:33:37 PM

I used bosch plugs in the ol' 944 without problems. The LT1 is running them too iirc.

11/18/2008 9:23:58 AM