10th Mar 2005, 17:39
They must keep police cars in service a lot longer in Canada, eh?
Nobody in the US would be fooled into thinking an '87 Crown Vic was anything other than, well, just an old car, certainly not a police car...
16th Mar 2009, 16:04
I too had intermitant problem until one day it would not longer run. As well in damp weather I experienced hard starting and poor idle.
I checked the distributor and found no spark from the coil.
I replaced the coil from the auto-wreckers and have being happily motoring since. I believe since the coil is located on the front of the engine and the heat from the rad caused the coil failure.
9th Apr 2009, 10:04
Well, for starters, the unexpected stalling of the car can be a number of things. My few guesses would be the IAC valve is sticking, which leads to stalling issues, and the air flow sensor.
The IAC (idle air control) valve is located on the throttle body on backside. It is held in place with 2 bolts and it looks like a cylinder thing with wire on bottom of it that plugs in. Many times after years of use, it gets carbon buildup in there and causes the little piston cylinder in there to get hung up and can cause issues. The IAC can be cleaned by removing it and cleaning it out with some carb cleaner. If you really want to clean the carbon out, you should remove the upper plenum/intake and clean the plenum and all accessories connected to it. I use B-12 cleaner to clean all this stuff out and a small wire brush the size of a toothbrush. I also clean the lower intake ports while the upper intake/plenum is removed. After reassembling, the car will want to start rough and will blow out lots of black smoke due to the stuff you cleaned in the lower intake being burned out of the system.
The air flow sensor is mounted on passenger side under the cowl looking thing. It has a rubber smaller rubber hose and wire plug sticking out the front. Many times they can go bad and cause the car to run wrong. You can get a couple from the junkyard to swap out that with and solve that problem also.
I, personally, have owned 5 Crown Victorias and a Grand Marquis. I have learned much about them, and they were all 1987s. My girlfriend has a 1989 Crown Victoria and her son has a 1986 Grand Marquis. I guess you can say I am familiar with working on these cars since we have a small fleet I maintain.
9th Apr 2009, 13:51
I forgot to mention in last post. One of the 1987 Crown Victorias I had would do this also because of a malfunctioning fuel pump relay. It is the greenish looking one located on fenderwell under the hood. While you are at it, there is a brown relay that messes with the system also. My Crown Victoria 2 door I have did this to me on the road and messing with relay wires, it would start. When the car was started, I would mess with wires again and it would shut off. Sorry that I forgot to mention the relays in previous post.
24th Sep 2010, 21:21
I have owned several Crown Vics, as well as driving several of them as taxi cabs after the police, fire dept, sheriff and highway patrol wore them out. For the most part, they held up under the strain of 12 hour shifts and some worked double shifts, 24 hours.
As with any vehicle with electric fuel pumps, don't let the gas drop below 1 quarter tank. Going up or down steep hills or around corners causes the gas to slosh around, and allows air to get into the fuel lines, causing a vapor lock. So many mechanics con people into replacing fuel pumps (and some don't replace them, but will charge you for it anyway), and be aware, not all fuel pumps require the tank to be removed from the vehicle. Some are under the frame and are easy to get to. They usually cost more than the ones that go in the tank.
Keep track of how much gas you had to start with. Some mechanics have a bad habit of not putting all your gas back in the tank if they do drop it to install a pump. All they do is add a gallon or two of gas, turn the ignition switch to on so you can hear the fuel pump, then turn it off. Do this four or five times. This helps to prime the pump and lines and purge the air so the car will start and run.
The little safety switch in the trunk is supposed to turn off the fuel pump in case of serious wreck or roll over, so car won't catch on fire. If it's acting up without being in a wreck, it needs to be replaced.
You can have a bad catalytic converter, and your car will quit when it gets hot on a drive across town. After cooling down, it will start. The fumes dissipate while car is cooling down. I was tricked into trading off a very nice Chevy Chevelle Malibu with this problem.
All these problems can happen on any of the newer vehicles, so be prepared to act upon the simple solution first. Then try the mechanic.
31st Dec 2010, 10:47
I had this same problem, and turns out the map sensor was bad. I would be driving and it would shut down, so I found out either the vacuum was not right, or the map sensor is bad. To check it, pop the hood (87 model) 5.0L fire wall back of motor! You will see a box with an electrical plug and one vacuum line, start it up and unplug the vacuum line; it should shut off. If it does not at that moment, it's bad! When you drive and it shuts off, it's not getting proper vacuum pressure; there is a valve inside it that's not opening! You have to replace it! I am a Ford mechanic, any questions, e-mail me at, lp69rock@yahoo.com thank you, Randy.
26th Jun 2012, 14:45
I have 87 Crown Vic. 5.0. While driving, the car will shut off, then go back on within seconds. Last time this happened, I put the A/C on.
20th Jan 2014, 12:58
As pertains to the car stalling, same thing with mine. Took it to super-skilled mechanic and he went straight to the crankshaft position sensor and replaced it in 10 minutes. He said the problem is sometimes not the crankshaft position sensor, but the throttle position sensor. Good luck. My bill was only 52$ for the part.
7th Mar 2014, 10:54
I have a 1987 Crown Vic and need to know where the vacuum lines connect at the back of the air plenum.
8th Sep 2014, 14:43
Is there a fuel shut off on an 87 Mercury 5.0L??? I couldn't find one, but when I was racing it the other day and got a good hit from behind; it shut down... It would turn over, but I can't hear the fuel pump trying to pump.
19th Oct 2016, 16:09
I have a 2002 Ford Crown Vic. When am driving down the road, it shuts off and then it starts back up.
9th Feb 2017, 15:53
I've been through the problem of the car just dying, and not knowing when it will start again. They checked only parts related to fuel. I mentioned to them that I once had this problem before, and it was electrical, a solenoid or something. Once I sent this guy in the right direction, he replaced the computer. First he said it was the battery connectors, which I knew it was not. Then he put a distributor on, and I didn't feel it was that either. I told him I was not paying for those parts, because he did not fix the problem. In the end I paid for nothing. He told me my car was a nightmare care, and to never bring it back there. My Crown Vic is in good shape, I'd never been told I had a "nightmare" car, because the mechanic couldn't find the problem.
7th Mar 2005, 22:08
We spent 1500 for similar reasons; altimeter, tune up, fuel pump, tranny service, We did it, then finally replaced the distributor. Never had such good car. Dual exhaust model, handling package, EFI 5.0. People still move over for our 1987 Crown Vic, coming up from behind sleeper style in Canada