runs 2 secs and dies....

[95talon_in_ma]

I originally posted this in the Newb section, but haven't really gotten anywhere with it.

Car has no mods cept for an intake pipe and exhaust.
I was not working on it or changing anything when this happened.
I left one morning, did some errands parked it in the driveway and when I went back out there the car would not run for more than a sec. If I pressed the gas pedal during that time, it backfired and spit.
The CEL was not on. It made no noises or etc to give any indicatiopn something was wrong.

I have checked the following:
Timing is dead on. All points line up.
Tested ignition coil and replaced it with with working one.
Verified fuel was reaching the engine.
Verified Spark was good.
Checked all connections and hoses were plugged in.

The CEL finally came on permanantly now.But I just ordered my pocketlogger three days before this happened, but it won't be in until this thursday. (Must of had some weird preminition)

I have an identical parts car cept it was an auto.

I am narrowed down to thinking it's the Cam or Crank sensor.
The car will not get over 1000 rpm's and it loads up the plugs.
If it let it run and don't touch the gas, it lasts about 2-3 secs and dies.
If I hit the gas it pops volently and dies.

It sounds like timing, but again I verified that to the point bringing the piston to tdc and making sure the engine was on compression stroke and all timing marks lined up.

Can anyone tell me if they experienced something similar with any kind of sensor going bad? Will the car even run if one of those are bad?

Thanx in advance, Duane

 

[njc1064]

Yes, it does sound like a timing issue....but also, switch out your maf with the one from the other car...See if that changes anything....As for the crank sensor, its possible, but usually when they are broke, the car will crank but not start...

 

[95talon_in_ma]

Unfortunately that was the one thing that didn't come with the car. In fact when i got the parts car I was told it had a thrown rod. So just to make sure I juiced the battery and even with no MAF hooked up, no turbo hoses connected to the intake, I fired the thing up. Ran like crap and in fact it was a bad rod, but thing still revved up and ran all together. So I don't think the MAF would cause this.

Think the Cam Sensor going bad would cause these symptoms?

The ECU lites up when I turn the key on. is it possible that ithe ECU could still light up and still be bad?
It now stays on all the time though, which it didn't do initially, So I'm thinking it picked up something.

What else could send such an incorrect message to the ECU that the ECU would not disregard it and run in limp mode?

Sorry to sound desperate, but these rental cars ain't cheap.

Thursday I'll have the Pocketlogger, but anything else I can eliminate until then?

 

[NewTurboTuner]

Its a long shot but.....
check your spark plugs and spark plug wires.

I did a compression check and when I pulled my spark plug wires out, it damaged one of the wires (although I didn't know it).... after I re-installed the plugs, and wires, the car would start good, but only run about 2-3 seconds before it sputtered and died. Also when I gave it gas it only made the car act up worse.

At the time I didnt see how the spark plugs or wires could make the car act the way it did, but since the spark plugs, and wires were the only thing I removed from the car when I did my test... I knew it had to be one of those things. The plugs looks good, and I bought a new set of wires to go on the car... I installed the new wires, and it started like a champ!

I still find it odd that the car started up fast, and ran perfectly fine for 2-3 seconds.... I figure something like a bad plug wire would make it so that the car would be hard to start and hard to idle at all..... but???

Good luck!

 

[95talon_in_ma]

I did the plugs already, but hadn't done anything with the wires. I agree with you on what you mentioned about your occurence though. Reminds me of a similar incident with my wifes galant. Though it was more over time. With mine, it's really weird that it was fine one moment and then all by itself something went.

But it wouldn't be impossible. Hate to throw more money at it, but It was probably time for new wires anyway so what the hell...
I'll try and we'll see. Sometimes the hardest problems have the simplest solutions...

Duane

 

[Timechg]

I Don't know too much about electrical problems with cars but my cam position sensor went bad in my car last summer and it was starting for 2 seconds and then shutting off like you said.

-the first think I did was waste a lot out of money throwing parts at my problem

I tried spark plugs, wires, different coil pack, power transistor, fuel pump, MFI relay, ECU (used my friends spare), and different MAS. Expensive bad idea.

Unbolt your fuel rail and try turning the car over (make sure you have towels and make sure it safe). If your fuel injectors aren't spraying I would suspect the cam position sensor. This is what went bad on my car and it is responsible for the pulse to the injectors. A safer way to test the fuel injectors is to put a voltmeter where the fuel injectors plug in to see if you get a 12 volt pulse (you will need help from a friend). Changing the cam position sensor sucks on a 95-96 because you have to redo the timing belt and pull of the intake cam, if you had a 97-99 you could just unbolt it and swap it out. I had to change my timing belt on my driveway that sloped.....Hopefully that helps any.

 

[95talon_in_ma]

Well I swapped the wires and that wasn't it, Oh well, they needed to be changed anyway.

I also unplugged the Cam sensor and my first try after I started it, it actually ran for a couple secs. But it went right back tot he way it was.

Symptoms sound similar to what you describe except I am getting tons of gas in cylinders 2 and 3 and no gas in 1 and 4.
Does the Cam sensor send a signal while it's cranking?

I'll probably wait until I get the Pocketlogger on thursday before I swap out the Cam sensor.

I have a new water pump and belt I'm throwing on while I am in there.

My other Car was an Auto. I know the injectors are different from a MT, but if I swapped the computer from the AT, does anyone know if that would work at least to rule it out?

Thanx for the info.
Duane

 

[Timechg]

Yes the cam position sensor sends a pulse when you are cranking. If you look at the wiring diagram in the chilton's manual the cam position sensor is linked to the fuel rail wiring for th pulse.

Tim

 

[95talon_in_ma]

Received the Pocketlogger today. Hooked it up and sure enough the code it spit out was P0340 Camshaft Position sensor.
I cleared the code and the car actually idled for about 15 secs. I wanted to make sure the code wasn't from when I unplugged it once.

It threw the code and died. It also killed my app on the PDA. I had to reset it because it gave me a "fatal exception error".
Is that common if it throws a code while your tapped in with the logger?

Looks like I'll be tearing it apart, putting on a new belt, new water pump and a new sensor this weekend.
Look forward to actually messing around with the logger too.

Thanx for all the help!

Duane

 

[w1kk3d]

heh, I have the exact same problem... damn p0340.
My Palm didn't crash when it threw the code though.

Can't wait to tear into this...blah