Hello all and Happy New Year,

I am writing here today because I am desperate. What should have been a simple coolant change end up being a disaster. Let me start from the beginning.

After Christmas I decided to play with the car (2013 V6) and change the coolant. I did watch few videos read a little about it as well- easy right?. I drained the old coolant and refiled with distilled water. Drained it again. I noticed that only about 2 gallons of water came out. I read somewhere that you can start the car and rest of the fluid will drain. I did that. After about 20 seconds the car started dying. I quickly turned it off. Added more distilled water to do another flush, tried to start the car but it doesn’t start anymore.

When I turn the ignition on the car cranks and it cranks even I when I move the key back (stops when I move the key to the off position) see the video:

https://sendvid.com/3h2my86q

I have been losing sleep over that for over 4 days now. I tried disconnecting the battery to clear EPC. I drained the water and purchased the pressurized cooling system refiller, the system holds pressure and I refilled it with new coolant, I have noticed that it only took about 1.5 gallon of new coolant ?

I checked the fuses, I put the car on the stock tune, I have not seen any codes etc.

I am totally lost I have no idea what happened. Please help.

 

engine hydrolock it sounds like. Your best bet is to get the car towed to the dealership ASAP!

 

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I checked there is no water in the oil and the engine cranks.
Is it possible that the fuel pump went bad all the sudden?

 

There are a lot of reasons. But remember, it's (siphon with a great deal of negative pressure, aka SWAGDONP), squeeze, bang, blow. If any of these aren't doing their thing, you ain't runnin'.

(SWAGDONP): That's air filter, intake tube, MAF sensor, Air Temp sensor, Throttle Body (butterflies and motor) TPS, Intake, valves. You hope it's not the latter two... The sensors probably would throw a code, the TB motor would throw a wrench. Oh, yeah, accelerator position sensor too, but that's so unlikely due to the redundancies built into that thing... still.

Squeeze: Either it has compression or it doesn't. You'll need a compression gauge and just test that.

Bang: Spark quit. Proabably not, as that's probably the entire computer, or a really bad wiring thing. Crank Position Sensor went out. Happens. Check that. Possibly the cam position one(s). ALthough those should (?) throw a code. Fuel delivery. Perhaps clogged fuel filter. Perhaps bad fuel pump. Filter under car middle... driver side? I dunno, somewhere like that, I can't be bothered right now, lazy. Fuel pump is in the tank, under driver side rear seat bun. Check fuses. All of them. Just get a test light or multimeter and test both sides for power with key on. Inside fuses on passenger kick panel, outside are in engine bay passenger side right behind the headlamp. Or you can pull them (maybe go get the manual to see which ones you need to actually check first so you can reduce the amount of them) and do a continuity check. Oh and also relays, they may be involved too. Then you're talking wiring... fun times that. Or again, the computer, and you hope not.

Blow: If the exhaust is clogged, the thing can't breathe. Not sure how to check that, honestly, it'd have to be some kind of major failure to not let *something* run on one side or another...

And if all that checks out... Scan tool. Not a code reader. And maybe a dealership/competent car guru is in order.

Now the weirdo part is it keeps going. That indicates a severely messed up electrical system, possibly caused by your flush maybe shorting something out somehow, and now it's not happy. To say the least. Captain Obvious to the rescue, you're welcome!

At this point, I'm doing what I had to do with my motorcycle when it did some crazy crazy weirdo stuff: Check battery. Check grounds. Check ALL connectors. Once was the ground, the bike instruments went stupid and the thing didn't run right. The ground bolt had come loose. Cleaned it and the ring connectors up where it was all metal-metal and slathered it in dielectric grease, fixed. Second time was I had no turn signals, and it turned out the connectors were... unhappy. Same thing, cleaned (contact cleaner), greased, reconnected, sorted, bike's wonderful again. 1995 vintage motorcycle is always a little project here and there, but I'm gettin' there...

So I'd say just go through all your connectors and wiring under that engine bay. Take them off, clean them with contact cleaner, put some dielectric grease on the female connector, then reconnect. Be really really careful with some of them. Your car's new enough, but that plastic gets brittle with age, and even moreso with heat. You're going to pop a retainer clip, and probably at the COPs or the fuel injectors. Might have to zip-tie them back on or get a new connector... that's always fun. Hopefully you won't experience any issues like that.

I notice you have a Raxion head unit. That makes me wonder what else is not stock, and if it maybe needs to be removed from the system temporarily. An alarm, autostart...? Just a question, not sayin' do it, but it's to be considered. Stuff that's not stock can cause headaches like this...

I hope you find the issue. Good luck to ya, hope that helps!

 

sounds like maybe it started overheating and shut itself down to prevent damage and now it is in some kind of "safe mode" . . . maybe?

if so, there should be some way to reset that; I would think disconnecting the battery would do it but there might be a code that needs to be reset

I am just guessing, trying to think what would be the cause or connection, why it started doing this all of a sudden when you ran it without water; or it could be a coincidence that something else happened at the same time . . . maybe you knocked a wire loose somehow?

 

Thank you for your time and responses.

I have been looking into it for days, checked the fuses, was looking for loose cables and couldn’t find anything.

I started looking into the fuel pump. After removing the back seat and the rubber grommet with ignition in On position I could hear a tiny busing noise coming from it (I could, my wife couldn’t)

I have ordered a pressure test gauge and should be here on Saturday. But in meantime I have disconnected fuel pump control module from the trunk (according to service manual) and then I disconnected the fuel line going to fuel rail. Only very small amount of gas came out from it.

Then I connected everything back together and cycled the ignition key multiple times. Went back and unplugged the fuel line again and no gas came out, not even a drop. Shouldn’t that line be under high pressure? and after cycling the ignition the fuel should be pouring from it?

Please see the video: (sorry not sure why its upside down):

https://sendvid.com/nvpmdkbb

What do you think?

 

autozone has a free loaner pressure gauge.

 

did you find the cause?

 

Not Yet.
I started looking into the fuel pump.
2013 mustangs don't have fuel pump inertia switch anymore so that's not the issue either.
I disconnected fuel pump control module in the trunk and then I disconnected the fuel line going to fuel rail. Only very small amount of gas came out from it.
Then I connected everything back together and cycled the ignition key multiple times. Went back and unplugged the fuel line again and no gas came out, not even a drop. Shouldn’t that line be under high pressure? and after cycling the ignition the fuel should be pouring from it?
I purchased a fuel gauge, Connected it and cycled the ignition key few times and leave it in On position. reading is 0.

I think I will just go ahead and purchase new fuel pump and see if that fixes the issue.

 

You should have a mechanic take a look before you keep throwing money at it.