Please help me. I drove my car last night (about 90 miles) and it was perfectly fine. Then today I tried to start my car and it won't start. It will turn over just fine but it won't fire. I have no idea what is wrong. I think it might be electrical b/c I thought I had an electrical problem earlier. It sometimes cuts out but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas what is wrong or what i can do to get started? Thanks for the help in advance.

Chad

 

Start with spark and check the spark at one of the plugs. If there is no spark there, then back up to the coil. Check it the same way as you did the plug at a cylinder. Obviously if you have spark at the coil and not the plug, it may be plugs or wires. If the coil does not have spark, you will have to go further into the ignition system.

The other thing to check if the spark is ok is fuel pressure. The cheap and dirty way is to squirt fuel in the intake with the TB open and then try to start it. If it starts and shuts off right away, there is a good chance you have no fuel getting to the intake. The other way to check is push the schrader valve on the fuel rail by hand to see if fuel squirts out but without a pressure gage, the results of this are unreliable.

That should be a start.

 

Thank you for the suggestions. I have A little update...I went back out and tried to start it again. It did the same thing. It would turn over fine but wouldn't fire. I finally got it to start by giving it full throttle while turning the key (partial throttle wouldn't work). It fired up and immediately would die unless I gave it throttle. I drove it for a couple of minutes and then it righted itself and I haven't had a problem with it the rest of today. Here is what I know...the wanting to die part without giving it gas has been happening periodically for awhile now. It happens every once in awhile and always rights itself. I think it is electrical b/c I noticed today that when I went to start the car a couple of times I would put the key in the accessory position and the lights would light up and then I would here an electrical click and they would go off and the car would not even turn over. I would take the key out and then the put it back in and everything would be fine. I have a cheap alarm on the car that is only connected to the battery and has one motion detector and it acts funny in these situations as well. i was wondering if you guys have any idea what could be causing this? Could my alarm be messing up and taking all the juice from the battery. It isn't wired into the ignition system (cheap alarm) so I don't think it has anything to do with that, but any suggestions would be great. Also when the car is having the idle problem it sometimes doesn't die. Sometimes i just let it idle without giving it gas and the idle will drop to about 300 rpm and then jump back up to normal. It will do this a couple of times and then the car is fine. This is generally how I fix the problem. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks for the help.
Chad

 

Have you noticed the problem more since it has gotten cold? I believe the clicking you are hearing is relays inside the car. They are clicking due to not enough power getting to them. More or less a brown out. This can be due to several things. The first easiest thing to check is the battery and the alternator.

Before you do anything, you should check the connections at the battery to be sure the battery terminals and the wire terminals that connect to them, are clean and shiny.

Using a voltmeter(VM), measure the voltage across the battery with nothing on. Now measure from the + battery terminal to a clean ground point on the engine block. If you read less than the voltage across the battery, it means you have bad ground. You will have to remove and clean the 2 grounds at the engine and the frame before doing any more testing.

Then have someone crank the engine while you measure the voltage across the battery. If it drops to less than 11 volts, you have a battery or connection problem but usually it's the battery. If it is less than 11volts when cranking, the next test is invalid until the problem is corrected.

Now let that person crank it until it starts and while it's running, measure the voltage across the battery. It should now be over 13 volts. If it is over 13 the alternator is ok. If not and you've fixed any previous problems, then the alternator is bad.

This seems like a lot to do because there is a bunch of words to describe it but it really isn't and all this testing takes less than 5 minutes. If all of this is ok when you check it then there are a lot more ground points to check but they are easy.

let us know how we can help if you need it. I personally love the challenge of electrical problems.

 

Thanks for the help. I'm going back to school tonight so I won't be able to look at the car until next weekend. I'll try your tests and see if I can figure it out. If not I'll probably start another thread with the new information. Thanks again for all the help. I"ve got to say that this site is a wonderful tool and I hope everyone keeps up the good work.
Chad