So, the truck is bone stock aside from intake and exhaust. I went on my lunch break to get fuel, tried to start the truck and it cranked like a **** but no start... check engine light came on during cranking. I tried starting it a few times cranking for 6-10 seconds a couple times. I had the WTS light on every time like it should be. I popped the hood and looked for any obvious issues, nothing there. I got back into the truck and it fired up like normal. Any ideas what this tantrum was about? Does this sound like it could be a sensor getting ready to give up on me?

 

Double check oil level.

Next time truck wont start like that, check oil then again as well. Then Check the HPOP oil.

What year is the truck?

If the Hpop oil is low, it means its draining down on ya.
I forgot the fix for that.

The only other thing it could be is the CPS going bad.
You'd have to watch the tach when it decides not to start. If the tach doesn't move, thats definitely the issue.

At least you can eliminate 2 things in one shot.

 

The truck is a '97 - I will check the oil level, how low would it have to be to cause a problem? Also, it may be obvious but just in case, how do I check the level in the HPOP?

 

Pull the plug on the HPOP reservoir on the front top of the motor. Its a allen head screw on the top right. The oil level should be about 1/2 inch from the top.

 

It wont be a serious issue if its a little less than a 1/2 inch, but if its pretty empty, then we have identified our issue. =)

 

Soooo, truck ran fine the rest of the day once the episode was over.. Next morning it fired up then died, restarted without issue. It's been running fine ever since. Don't have a clue... Any ideas? Something is lurking

 

The CPS is really random like that, I know I struggled with that, it would start losing power driving down the interstate and almost stay running and I thought I was dealing with fuel issues, other times it would flat out die, no start, then it would fire up later. CPS.

 

If I could figure out how to make a CPS that would guaranteed work for x amount of time, and would cure all this I would. It is so amazing to me that this little sensor can cause so much trouble. Its weird because I don't hear of other cars having so much trouble out of these sensors.

 

They do.

the Taurus SHO has this issue.

ALL hall effect sensors have this issue.