As the title says the Escape won't start. A little background info though. Escape wouldn't start one day. there were no warning symptoms at all. checked fuel pressure at fuel rail 0psi so dead fuel pump replaced it started but had to use starting fluid on first start up. let it run for a half hour or so and checked starting 3-4 times. it was fine. let it sit for a few days and it went back to the non-start condition. checked fuel pressure and spark. no pressure or spark. noticed cel on so hooked up my scanner at first it showed a bad CTS only. cleared the code and tried to start again still no start and cel back on, however, scanner started changing code with each start attempt. seen this before with other vehicles and 99% of the time it was a defective ECM. have a few escape/tributes laying around so i swapped the computer out along with the matched key cylinder and mass air sensor. attempted to start but back to no start. however, miraculously, it then had spark but low fuel pressure at the rail again. so figured it was the pressure regulator/damper. figured while the upper intake was off may as well change out the spark plugs as the old ones had 100000 + miles on them. So once everything was back together it started, ran and drove fine. declared the job done and happy day! Hah, sat for 4 days and back to cranks but no start. fuel pressure at rail good but 4 injectors weren't flowing so changed out injectors for 6 known good ones. haven't checked spark yet but I bet there is no spark again. Coils are all good. Any ideas or seen this erratic behavior before?

 

Your vehicle seems to have a series of mechanical problems which could be due to an electrical problem. Do you have any kind of test equip to use?

I suspect there may be a problem with the 5 volt reference voltage , which is supplied by the PCM.
There are multiple possibilities, among which could be ,
An intermittent component that could be defective causing the supplied voltage to other components to be affected. That could explain why different codes keep coming up.
This has to be verified before considering replacing anything.
If it is confirmed, then we need to isolate the problem to which component and the power supplied to the components by the ECM..

Nothing gets replaced until it is confirmed to be malfunctioning. Keep in mind something simple like a poor ground connection can affect many components and their function.. It sounds a little complicated to someone not familiar with electrical systems. A lot will depend on your determination and equipment to do some checking.
We should be able to offer some guidance, , what do you think?

 

Thanks for the information. You just told me what I didn't want to hear and already suspected. I have only basic electrical test equipment (multimeter, test light, and scanner with fix assist and some limited live data functions). As far as determination I have that in unlimited quantities. Just trying to limit the labor hours spent on this escape. It is my neighbors vehicle and I don't think he wants me spending 10-12 hours of circuit chasing. However, at this point it appears to be unavoidable. Will let you know what he wants to do later today and then we can proceed from there. Don't know if this is important information but it has 242,xxx miles on the odometer.

 

Not knowing the vehicle's maintenance history, a lot can be going on in those miles, but the challenge is always there.
Diagnostic time , usually at least an hour, can add up.
If you have the time can your scanner do a module health check?
If not, can you post the live data, which I believe is what we call data stream, that info may help lead us to a problem area, thanks.