Is this my optispark that has gone bad? The starter turns just fine. But it will not start. It seems like I can't go 3 days without something happening to the car.

 

same thing happened to me last nit. car was running fine all day but when i got to work it was stumbling,missing, backfired. then i parked it. no more starting. has no spark. but starter spins the motor over fine.

 

James3219, your car might be flooded, anything happen before this? Missing etc...

nas- I would order a new opti.

 

What do you mean might be flooded. I had the oil changed today and the coolant system flushed. Thats all I had done to it. Could it have gotten some coolant on it or something?

 

YES! If they spilled coolant on the Opti, there's a good chance that's what killed it. If you are lucky, it might dry out.

As far as "flooded", I believe he meant the engine might have excess fuel in the cylinders.... too much to fire. If you suspect this might be the case, you would probably smell the excess fuel. And to start under this condition, you need to put the throttle to the floor at startup, to put the PCM into "clear flood" mode.

 

Lately I have been smelling fuel when I start it up and even if it has been sitting for a while. And how do I put the PCM in to clear flood mode? Right now I have about 1/4 tank of gas.

 

Hold the accelerator pedal to the floor, then turn the key and try to start it. Hold your foot on the floor until it starts. That is what puts the PCM in "clear flood" mode.

Are you sure you have any fuel at all? At the 1/4 mark, most 4th Gens only have about 1 gallon of fuel left. As a general rule, fill it well before it hits 1/4, or you will end up damaging the fuel pump when you run out of fuel.

 

Grrrr....That still does not help. The car has been sitting there for about 2 hours now cooling down. It still will not start. I had the plugs and wires done last year, but I have not replaced the optispark. I believe this is what the problem is. Yeah I know I have fuel in there. It is right above the 1/4 mark. I had 1/2 a tank this morning and only drove maybe 25 miles. I know where my fuel amount is.

 

Ain't that the truth!! Damn LT1's!! It could be your coil. Or the coil wire. Just trying to think of the little things before we blame the always blamed optispark. By the way, how many miles on the car?? It could be because they got coolant on it. I had a coolant leak and that ended up being the demise of my opti. When i replaced it i opened up the old one and it had OIL and COOLANT in it!!!!!!! I was suprised it lasted that long. Hope this helps.


Chris

 

The car has 145k miles on it. I am just gonna wait and see if it will start up later. If not, how do I check the coil, coil wire, and or optispark to see if that is really the problem?

 

Last year my water pump dumped coolant all over my opti and it still runs fine. Planning on it dying soon. If it lasts till cam change, its getting replaced anyway. Good thing my truck stays insured all year.

Had a coil wire fail on a different car and that was similar to James3219's prob. Are you checking for spark at a plug or out of the coil?

 

If you have 145,00 miles and your opti hasn't gone bad yet, it is probably the problem here. If not it will be going out soon anyways.

 

An Ohmmeter can be used to check the resistance of the coil/plug wires and windings of the coil. If the wires have very high or infinite resistance, they're no good. Same with coil secondary (coil wire) terminal to ground. Its been a while since I've done this and my shop manual isn't handy so if anyone out there remembers the acceptable range of resistance, let us know, please.

 

Well someone from another board said to stick a screwdriver between the plug boot and the plug and see it I get a spark. If I do the opti would be good. I guess I am gonna try that.

 

you gotta take the plug boot off of the plug and stick the end of a screwdriver in the boot while someone turns the key. youll know if you get a spark