SO i am sitting at the highest point in our little city getting ready to pull out onto a somewhat busy road and the car doesn't move, i notice that the car has died. I hadn't even let out the clutch and it died. SO i try to start it and the tack stays at 0 but the engie does turn over and it was getting fuel, I could smell it. SO i thought maybe something electrical, opti or coil wire or something, I check the wire and its fine, but still won't start.

SO my beloved formula, that i have had for a short three weeks is already in service for something faulty. It rarely ever got driven in those three weeks, and it was never beat on.

So the car sits inside the local pontiac dealer awaiting diagnosis. I think it is the optispark, but I am not sure at all. The mechanic dude that we signed the car in to thought it was a coil pack, but there are no coil packs on that car, so I am really confident with these people!

If it happens to be the opti, I was wondering how hard and what is needed to convert over to a 95+ vented opti and if a dealer would be able to do it. If anyone knows anything about this or has a better probable diagnosis, let me know!!!

Thanks in advance, I want my car back!!

 

check out the delteq system i dont know how reliable it is but it runs off a four coil pack and wont break the bank and wont need major modifications. the vent opti as far as i know needs sum pain in the butt mods.http://www.delteq.com/

 

Its probably the Ignition Module which is a small little black thing above your coil.

 

There must be a couple of unknowns. You've owned the car 3 weeks out of 11 years, did you know the owner of the car before?

Mechanics at dealerships don't write service orders, service advisors do and they are kept notoriously stupid so they don't give lousy advise (obviously didn't work in this case) and step on their hooters. Particularly in the case that they tell the customer it's a $10.00 problem and it turns out to be a $1000.00 problem.

The dealer will not want to get involved in switching over to a vented system that includes another cam, cam cover, opti, water pump and vent tubing because that's called modification and if something should not function correctly they would be like blind men in a fish market. There would not be a book that they could refer to that has the set up in it that you would end up with.

Before you have them do anything, let them know you must approve all repairs before they are made and you must have all parts that are replaced other than gaskets, spark plugs, hoses or belts. If you are not given the old parts back, you will not pay for the repair. The reason you do this is simple. Everyone at some point or other mis-diagnoses a problem. They change out a part and it doesn't fix the problem. Then they find the correct part and replace it. BUT they don't remove the first part and they don't remove it from your bill either. They simply explain to Joe Schmoe standing at the counter that Joe had a bad abc and a bad xyz part. If the first part was a very expensive part and didn't need to be replaced, you have the part to potentially check if it isn't difficult to replace and you will have provented another dealer from raping another unsuspecting customer.

The mechanics at dealers always talk about the customer they got for this part or this much money. The things you can learn from the Snap-on man when you see him every week is in-valuable.

Good luck to you.

 

how would I go about testing the ignition module (little black thing above coil) Keep in mind that I don't have the car, its at a dealer.

 

thanks slopokrodrigez! I will get every part they take off and test them all!

I bought the car from someone by the name of Brad Showen, (i didn't know him) he was a regular on this site, by the name of SHOWEN04 and some of you may know him. I have come to the conclusion that he didn't tell the entire truth to me about a few things.

anyway, I asked if anything at all was wrong witht he car and was assured many times that nothing was wrong, hmmm, three weeks with very few trips in the car and it dies, hmm. So that leads me to believe someone lied, but i am not drawing conclusions. that won't do anything and i am not driving another saturday back to ohio to take the car back.

 

hey bro ive been having teh same problems......as soon as i get my coil and ICM i will give u an update on how it runs.....maybe we have the same problem

 

hopefully you get the parts before wednesday, The car is at the local pontiac dealer, which probably wasn't the best thing we coulda done, towing it there, I know I am in this at least $500 either way, whether its the opti, coil, ICM or whatnot.

 

yeah ill tell ya when i receive them....hopefully the rain can hold of so i can do it

 

UPDATE:

I got in touch with the mechanic that is working on my formula... one problem, He went ot move it this morning without reading why it was there and it fired right up... SO he was confused as to why it was there when he read it was a no start.

Anyway, Why did it start for him and die on me? My parents had an experience similar to this with a late 80's mazda 626 that would die, and then the dealer would find nothing wrong with it. I need a car that is going to start and run on a dime and get me places and not stahl up.. Why did it die, but now they can't find anything wrong? They are doing tests and the like, but they have started it about 10 or so times today and it started right up everytime.

They are keepign it overnight just to see what happens tomorrow. I don't need this though!! Anyone know whats up with the starting and not starting?

 

Many no start, hard starting issues are due to fuel problems. For example, the fuel pressure regulator leaks and can cause 2 problems. It can allow the fuel to run back toward the tank and therefore take longer for the engine to fire up when started. It can also flood the intake with fuel causing a puddle which takes a long time to clear up when cranking before it will start.

A leaky injector(s) can cause a similar problem. Both of these type problems can be diagnosed with a fuel pressure gage to see how fast the fuel pressure drops after the engine is shut off. If the FPR is leaking, the vac line would be wet with fuel.

A fuel pump crapping out can give you the same symptoms. On the flip side however, a poor electrical connection could give you the same exact problem. I've seen a lot of distributor connectors that were so corroded, I wondered how they even ran to begin with, let alone be intermittent.

 

Well, I definately know it wasn't getting spark, and the car started fine for the people which is really screwy... It was gettign fuel though, I could smell it. The injectors were definately pulsing.

When I tried to start it, the tach was stuck at 0, didn't move at all, and I am pretty sure that that means it isn't getting spark.

The dealer is keepign the car a few more days to see if they can trigger anything. If not, I get it back by friday. Then I have to decide whether to throw a bunch of parts at it or just wait till it happens again

Would the ICM or Coil be the cause of this, what about an Ignition switch (kinda out there, but I am open to suggestions)

Let me know!

 

My best guess would be the opti...definitely symptoms of a dying opti especially with the tach not displaying RPM (it feeds the PCM the RPM signal). Although the ICM is cheaper and is easier to rule out. Did any DTC's show up on the scan?

Kris

 

well my car alwaysn started right up after it stalled.......im supposed to be getting my coil and ICM in tomarrow and should be on the car by tomarrow night/friday.......im getting a tuneup on friday for 80bucks....wow what a deal........so ill tell u if my car has anyproblems after that,.....btu its been running fine with no problems since then....hopefully i can track down why it does that.....

ignition switch could be a good thing to change to,.,,.....thats gonna be my next purchase if everything doesnt work right after

 

the car spit out a code 23 for IAT sensor the first time i checked it, ABout two weeks ago... then i checked again, and it spit out a 32 for egr failure, but the service engine soon light came on when it dies, and they can't find a single code in the system... The hooked up a compute and nothing comes out not even the egr anymore

see, this is one of those things where it dies, you tow it in, and they tell you you are nuts and to get the car off the lot! Then it dies again and you take it back it and they tell you the same thing!