Hi Guys! I really hope someone here can help me. I have a 1998 Ford E-350 with 175k miles on the 5.4 L.

I have had it several years and have had no problems with it. I had my van parked at school during a Christmas concert the other night. I went to start my vehicle and it started and died immediately. I tried to start it again, but it would only crank very, very slowly a couple of times and then stop. I thought the battery must be dead because of the way it was acting. So, I get my jumper cables out and proceed to hook them up. Trying to juggle my cell-phone light and the cables, I accidentally touched them together and realized my battery was not very dead, if at all. I hook the cable up to the other car - still turns over super slow, if it turns over at all, it only turns once.

I start looking around my vehicle and notice oily fingerprints on my front bumper and oil on the ground under the engine. I look closer and it appears that someone had taken my oil filter off and drained whatever oil would come out and put it back on. And it looks like they must have had a towel to soak up the oil and wipe it up. I check the oil and see that it is barely showing on the dipstick and add 2 quarts to bring it up to full.

Still. Same issue. I take the battery out and bring it home to put on the charger. It said it was 85% charged. I left it on for a few hours then put it back in the van. Still, same thing. I tow my van home and look around some more. It does not appear that the person messed with anything other than the oil filter. I decide I will take my battery in to have a diagnostic check on it. I end up with a new battery because that one tested bad. I put that battery in and try to start it. Same thing the first few times I turn the key. The it decided to turn over a little faster for about 10 seconds and I could smell the starter heating up.

What else could this vandal have done to cause this, or is it just coincidence? It acts/sounds like there is just too much friction for the starter to overcome and turn the engine over.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Honestly that's really odd thing for a vandal to do. It really wouldn't do anything, it would likely only lose a half a quart at most if the filter was reinstalled. Personally I'd be inclined to think the filter was leaking and you caught it in time because your starter is failing... When Dads 00 V10's starter died it acted like a weak battery a few times then went to almost doing nothing at 170k.

 

I drive this vehicle everyday and park in the same spot. It has never leaked a drop of oil. It has been months since the oil has been changed. I have not been under it to work on it at all, but there were oily fingerprints on the bumper. There was oil all over the parking lot under my van, but it appeared to have been wiped up with a towel.

 

I wasn't not trying to say I don't believe you but that it is an odd thing to do, even if they dumped something into the oil filter when they reinstalled it it should have run for a fair amount of time before problems started.... did they by chance loosen the battery cable on the starter?

There are some strange people out there...

 

All the connections to the starter look fine and untouched.. I don't know if they were able to get under my hood or not. Is there something they could have dumped in from the filler neck that would have acted that quickly?

 

I'm not aware of anything that can be added to the oil that would seize and engine immediately, even if the oil was completely drained and driven it would run for a surprisingly long time after start up. My personal opinion is still check the starter, pull it off and test it, my 94 F150 and Dad's 00 F250 acted exactly the same with the starters died....

The starters on these trucks are skookum if you take it apart, gear reduction with needle bearings on the planetary gears and look like new internally at 170k but the brushes in the motor only last so long and bam all the sudden it has no power to spin the engine...