Car wont start... PLEASE HELP!

[domenico_169]

K so here is the story:
monday the car woldnt start after work, started at lunch no problem, but then wouldnt start after,after some time it finally started. The car would just turn over, power was fine, it just wouldnt catch. The wedensday over night it was absolutely freezing, so the car wouldnt even turn over in the morning. So yesterday i heated the engine with a heater, and it would turn over just great, just wouldnt start. Tried boosting it, same thing, keeps turning over just wont catch. it seems that when you turn it over you can smell the gas. So whatg i did today was take out each plug and wire one by one, and insert the plug in the wire and try and turn it over to see if they all had spark, which they did. So it seems like i am getting spark to all of them, and it seems like gas is coming from the fuel pump. Also, I currently have a full tank of gas. A friend of mine says it could be flooded from all the time we tried starting it, he reccomended removing the plugs, removing efi fuse, cank motor, clean and dry plugs, re-install, and it should start. BTW this os on a 95 esi. also car does not have a block heater so i cant plug it in.

 

[gurmanator]

you have fuel and you have spark...do you have air?how cold is it up there?it was 22 below zero last nite and my car would not start.I used starting fluid and nothing and I cant plug it in either.I dont know if this will help but it might be cold blooded.

 

[femmeDSM]

And the Coolant Temp Sensor strikes again.....

 

[domenico_169]

Where is the EFI or INJ fuse on this car? on my 91 its roght off the positive on the battery. On the main fuse thing the only real main fuses there are is alternator choke, engine, and fusible. i want to clear it all out and makes sure its not flooded.

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

If you are smelling gas, change the plugs, and check the coolant temp sensor as stated above.

 

[femmeDSM]

Yeah. Once again, when Coolant Temp Sensors go bad, the ECU will just dump fuel into the cylinders to try and compensate for what it thinks are *way* sub-zero temperatures, usually fouling your plugs in the process.
And obviously, when this happens you'll smell plenty of gas, because there's no way your engine is going to burn all the fuel that the ECU is throwing at it.

As I say to everyone else, check the wires on the sensor first, before you go buying a new sensor. There are two wires (one green and one yellow) that get brittle from all the heat down there (they are right next to the engine block, so you can imagine how hot it gets down there). FYI, dealership charges like $60 for a new sensor, but you can get them cheaper from places like DSMotorsport.

 

[domenico_169]

well sure enough i got ti going and it was flooded as hell. used the release valve to shoot out all the gas. but now get this, we try and install an aftermarket block heat in the part of the block that is capped. so we take out the plug and try installin the heater, and its too big. i hope i can get an oem one, or something smaller. If not at the very least hope i can get another cap, but for now the car is undriveable again. damn dsm.