Starting issues - No / Doesn't / Won't Start - MERGED

[prodsm]

All "my car won't start" discussion threads are merged HERE. We've basically made it easier for those who insist upon not searching by grouping together all threads from those with similar issues so you can just scroll through and see some possible solutions. To search for info within this thread, use the "Search This Thread" feature in the black bar about 3" above what you're reading right now.

Could be anything from a loose battery terminal to internal engine damage, and literally everything in between which may involve the electrical, fuel, and ignition system...possibly even something that you screwed up while working on the car yourself. While it's unlikely we're going to diagnose and solve your problem over the internet, feel free to discuss any possible solutions.



I live in Canada and right now its not very warm out, about -30c
my car does not have a block heater too keep it warm.

I tryed to start my car this morning and it wouldent start, ive had this problem before but this time, the car doesnt crank at all it just makes a sound that sounds like an electric drill.

Whats wrong.

Thanks

 

[uummm]

Coil pack or CAS.

 

[bradcurtis15]

Coil pack or CAS.

I'm going to test my coil pack and power transistor and see if that's the problem and then ill check the cas. If these are good what else could it be?

 

[rreign0311]

I have yet to find a thread or a reply in a thread that has helped so here we go again. All of my mods are in my profile and I have been searching and combing through threads all day. One in particular I found was a great write up but I had already done all of this except for checking the timing.

Basically the car was sitting through the winter. Same old gas, a few starts here and there (a real pita with a mini battery by the way) and the car was just running yesterday. Today around noon I went out to try to start it and no dice. Tried for about 20 minutes and got it to turn over twice but it wouldn't idle. Second time I got it started I had heavy white smoke (probably from fuel build up) but then died as soon as I let off the gas. I tried again and when it wouldn't start, I let off the key and it backfired pretty loud.

I figured I fowled the plugs with all of this and pulled them out. Wet with gas across the board so I know I'm getting fuel. Hooked up each plug wire to a spark tester and got spark. Clean, rinse, dry, repeat 4 or 5 different times. (I'm getting fast at removing spark plugs by now.) So I'm thinking hmm, maybe bad gas through the winter. I was only at about 1/16th of a tank so I added some new 93 and some sea foam for a cleaner and a kick. I also replaced the coolant temp sensor and checked the compression (175, 172, 175, 175) Still can't get it started after over 8 hours of trying. I need some help or advice. I'm trying to avoid the fact that it's possible she jumped timing during all the bucking the first time I got it started. So give me something ... please

 

[91-GS]

If you think she might have jumped timing, take off the t-belt cover and check the timing. How long ago was the belt and tentioner replaced?

 

[midnight_dsm]

Have you tried to pull codes on it? if not I would see if there is any codes, IMO it sound like it could be A bad ecu I have had this problem before with my 91 talon I checked everything wires,fuel,spark,timing ect.... and 3 months later ran codes and found out it was the ecu was bad, I put A new one in and it started up no problem and no problems since then. this will help you with testing ECU Code Checking
Good luck man hope you get it figured out

 

[rreign0311]

Probably quite awhile. Motor was rebuilt about 16k miles ago and it was done then. I just am grasping at straws in thinking it could be the timing because I think I'm running out of options here.

 

[91-GS]

Won't hurt to check it. Mine broke some teeth out of the timing belt because it was quite old. That was a cheap autoparts-store-brand belt too. Take off the top t-belt cover and try to look at the belt, see if there is any obvious damage.

 

[rreign0311]

I went over the entire belt earlier today thinking if it jumped timing it would have busted some teeth out of the belt but all "looks" good. I'm leaning towards timing or sensors of some sort.

 

[91-GS]

Only sensor i can think of that won't allow the car to start at all would be the camshaft position sensor. With any other she would have started, but would not been able to idle or run very good.

 

[mustracetsi]

Have you checked crank positioning sensor cam sensor maf sensor tp sensor

 

[JustinP10]

When I first got my car, the prior owner must have not tightened the tensioner enough (or it wore out) and after a couple days of driving it, almost the same thing happened to me. The timing jumped when I went to start it. It somehow didn't bend any valves and I got SUPER lucky. But it had almost the same symptoms.

 

[gofer]

Which one taps into which? is it Blue/Orange & Green/Pink? I bought the car with the SAFC2 installed. Whoever wired it did a half ass job & I pulled the pink one out just by pulling the safc out so obviously the connection wasn't good at all.

And it should be solid blue correct? It looks like whoever made an attempt at wiring it ran Orange to Blue/Yellow. Pink is unclear however.

Well, you found your problem. The SAFC only works when it's wired in correctly and the connections are making a good connection...

I'm not a 1g DSMer so all I've got are the same write-ups to go off of that you do but I'll give it a shot by looking at a 1g ECU pin out and an SAFCII schematic, hopefully I give you good info.

From the SAFC TO the ECU connector

• 12V Signal (RED) - Tap into Pin 107 (RED)
  
• Ground 1 (BROWN) - Tap into Pin 106 (BLACK)
  
• Ground 2 (BLACK) - Tap into the same wire (106) that you did for the BROWN wire coming off the SAFC just further away from the ECU harness. ITS IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO IT FURTHER UP THE WIRE THAN THE BROWN ONE, AT LEAST 10" TO 12" APART.
  
• RPM Signal (GREEN) - Tap into Pin 21 (BLACK)
  
• Throttle Pos (GRAY) - Tap into Pin 19 (GREEN/WHITE)
  
• Airflow to ECU (PINK) - CUT wire going into Pin 10 (GREEN/BLUE) appox. 3" from the connector. Then tap this wire into the connector side of the cut wire...
  
• Airflow to Sensor (ORANGE) - Tap into the harness side of the (GREEN/BLUE) wire you just cut.

Here's a link to a .pdf version of a 1g's ECU pin-out, use it and TRIPLE check the connections. There's no point to having an SAFC, or any other tuning device, if it isn't installed correctly. I also recommend soldering all your connections or at the very least using quality butt connectors, I've seen some shady installed SAFC's with wires just wrapped around wires. Not something you want to rely on controlling your fuel correctly in full boost and WOT...

1G ECUPinout.pdf

 

[rreign0311]

I'm going to go through and check all the sensors today. I'm hoping it's something simple but if it's the timing, I'm just going to pull the motor. I have a cracked VC and it's gotten oil all over everything. I might just pull it and use the time to clean everything and do the timing then. I'm at a loss. I'll get back on the grind and I'll replace things one at a time. Hopefully I can find it and I'll be able to post back here to educate everyone on what I did and what caused the problem.

 

[jarkelley]

Good news. The coolant temp sensor was the issue. Shes running like a top now. took her up to get it scanned and there are no codes anymore. thanks again guys

 

[rreign0311]

I went over all sensors and everything is good there. I took a step back and started thinking about the full ignition system. I went over everything with a fine tooth comb and found that the plug wires were "leaking" some sort of odd sticky crap (sounds real technical, ) but this drove me to do a full tune up and with new wires, new plugs (nkg bpr8es gapped at .027) and a full size Optima red top, she started right up.

**I am now going to stay with my Optima and I'm going to sell my JMF mini battery tray and XS mini battery. Any takers?

 

[Momsbluegto79]

Have you tried to pull codes on it? if not I would see if there is any codes, IMO it sound like it could be A bad ecu I have had this problem before with my 91 talon I checked everything wires,fuel,spark,timing ect.... and 3 months later ran codes and found out it was the ecu was bad, I put A new one in and it started up no problem and no problems since then. this will help you with testing ECU Code Checking
Good luck man hope you get it figured out

Only code I get out of it is an o2 code. Plus reading around on here it appears as if you can tell if the ecu is working by the CEL coming on during inital key cycling and then going away(It does) plus the factory boost gauge moving upon cranking (it does). also every time the car fails to start you hear a loud click which I'm told is the ECU resetting itself.


I'll have to look at the wires for everything tomorrow and see where it leads me in terms of the safc, I think i got it pretty much right and the car still won't start. but thanks gofer.

 

[952g63t]

The last no-start I had was because of my crank position sensor. Worth checking if you haven't. One of the leads completely separated from the plug while still appearing to be attached.

 

[Momsbluegto79]

Took the CAS back out to check it (CAM angle Sensor, on the passenger side of the head, parallel to the Intake cam gear)
because I was not confident with the half ass way I checked it the first time which was:

-Try Starting the car,(failed)
-Set Car to TDC
-Pull CAS
-Turn 1/2 Turn
-Stick back In
-Try Starting Again.(failed)

Let me start by saying I was confused with the Color of my wires, searching around for info on 1Gs I was under the impression that the plug consists of (from top(closest to hood) to bottom(furthest from hood))
Black (Ground)
Red ( 12V power)
Yellow (Cam Position ECU Signal)
White (TDC ECU Signal)

MY Wires that go into the plug consist of
Black (Ground (?))
Red (12V Power(?))
Black Again (Cam Position???)
White (TDC?)

I can provide a pic if it helps. If definitely is black and not brown or purple or dirty.. just straight up black.

Anyway I pulled the CAS off the car, and hooked it up to a multi meter to spin it and see if I got any pulses. I hooked ground up to the Top Pin if the cas was mounted, black wire runs to this.
And power up to the pin just below that, which the red wire would have ran to.

Got no pulse for either of the other pins. Assuming I did the test right It looks like my CAS is bad. Can someone clarify?

 

[gofer]

Was the key in the ignition and turned to ON?

Is your battery dead?

Did you check your SAFC wiring that I posted above?

 

[Momsbluegto79]

Gofer, I did check that wiring and everythings fine now, Didn't help.

I had The CAS off the car and hooked my own source of power to the prong which I thought meant power.. guess I'm an idiot and that's why I thought it was bad.

The Ecu is fine. Pulled it out yesterday and took the case off. No capacitor soak and upon turning the key to on the check engine light DOES come on for 5 seconds then goes away and the factory boost gauge DOES go to 0 and DOES move when I crank the car.

The car has brand new NGK BR7ES plugs gapped down to .026

This might be able to help paint a picture... my car sounds 100% identical to this right now
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIywokeIX2o[/ame]
His problem ended up being it jumped 2 teeth. Mine looked like it had too so I retimed it just to be safe.
Only thing I haven't done is a boost leak test. Like I said it's pissing me off/dumbfounding that this car ran(poorly) when I bought it, and I fixed a few things now it won't do anything, I don't get what I did wrong



I'm hearing mixed things though, Some say you need to leave the cas sensor on to test pulse some say take it off..?

Gofer, could you clarify please?

 

[Jaw63012]

98 eclipse 2.0 non turbo 5speed. hit a big rock or something and busted a big hole in the tranny, so I put a used one in. Now the car has no spark at all. It ran great he day before we pulled the tranny, but now with it all back together no luck. Ive checked and re checked everything to make sure it's all plugged in and everything is. Any help would be awesome!

 

[ChiTownHussla]

grounds

 

[Jaw63012]

Any idea which grounds to check and where they could be?

 

[Talon96esi]

okay everyone im back, got my parts in finally and installed everything and praying to god she would start.....and she didnt . I have a 95 talon esi auto. I have replaced stater, coil, wires, plugs, fuel filter, camshaft position sensor, fuel pump relay, asd relay, checked my alternator fuse and its fine, the fuse for the ecu is fine...i just dont under stand why she is just cranking over and wont start, i know the battery is good, i hear the fuel pump kicking on...so im at a dead end...what could possibly be keeping her from firing up? when i first bought her she wouldnt even crank over so atleast im making progress...she had oil in 2 of the spark plug chambers but i got that taken care of and cleaned the chambers out and replaced valve cover gasket as well as the seals for the spark plugs, idk what else it could be....any input would be very much aprciated .

 

[93AWDDSM]

Are you for sure getting spark? Have you tested each plug agains the valve cover to see spark?