My 1998 Taurus wagon 3L started dying on me whilst driving about 6 months ago. I would be driving along and the car would die, not just a stall, all power would completely go, no lights, central locking, power steering, the whole lot, almost as if the engine and battery had been removed !!

If I turned the key nothing would happen, no clicking or anything. If I waited about an hour, then try, the car would fire up perfect and drive as if nothing happened. This has happened about eight times now, and has got much worse in the last few weeks, it cut out on me, I waited a few hours, it started up but only drove for about 30 minutes before cutting off again, then only started for about 20 seconds, and now, it won't start at all. I have been trying to get it going for over a week now.

At some stage over the last month I also noticed my engine light does not come on at all, (when the car was working) even with just the ignition on, I did manage to get the codes read, which only told me of a misfire on bank 1.
I'm not the most auto mechanically minded, but have had my multimeter show me that there is a good ground on the car (I assumed this was the problem)
Any help would be greatly appreciated, it's been a good car with 170k miles, and I really don't want to scrap it.

 

disregard message no 2. Incorrect diagnosis. ,,,hanky