Wismen HELP! Car Died, No Spark...

[sweetjumper32]

1995 Eclipse GST
Here's the story. One week ago I spilled lithium grease under my hood. I power washed it but I was careful of the alternator and coil pack and I put my spark plug cover back on before doing it. I turned the car back on, the 3 lights that show a bad alternator came on, then went on, I figured maybe I got a tad too much water on it and it evaporated before it caused damage, later no problems for the rest of spring break and car runs fine. Coming back to school Sunday my alternator lights come on, but then go off about 2 minutes later. I boost to pass a car and there is a vibration, I attribute it to exhaust, but after boosting and passing the car the three lights come back on, 2 minutes later go off. The lights come back on one more time in the trip but I make it back to school just fine. Next day I try to find out what's wrong, go and buy a new battery terminal for the positive end, thinking maybe it's a bad connection, since the terminal wasn't choppily put together. On my way back from buying the terminal, i accelerate from a stop sign and the car shuts off, rpms drop and i coast to a stop. I immediately check timing belt before even trying to crank the car again, and timing belt seems fine. I crank it and the car just cranks and doesn't turn over. My roommate and I push it into a spot and start inspecting for problems. We crank to listen for things but don't hear anything. I assume I have no spark so we pull plug wires one by one and confirm this. No spark. Don't know if I have a cel, cuz some idiot removed it. I decided to do the battery terminal anyways, and when I reconnected the power, I heard a clicking coming from somewhere above the valve cover, back in the area of the coilpack, but I can't confirm where the clicking is coming from. Things I've heard to check are power transistor, CAS, and Coilpack. Anybody have any other ideas, or think they know the problem and I'm overlooking it? I believe the clicking part is my problem, does anybody know what this could be? Please help me, I'm a poor college kid, and my only form of transportation is sitting in a spot racking up tickets. Help! Thanks, Michael

 

[sweetjumper32]

Trying to troubleshoot my problem. I followed up on the clicking noise that I get when I reconnect the positive terminal on the battery. I continually disconnected and reconnected the positive terminal following the noise, can't pinpoint it but it is coming from behind near the fuel rail and the injectors. I unplugged the power transistor and the connection directly to the right of it, and still got the noise when reconnecting power. Next I pulled the MPI fuse, and reconnected power, and the noise was gone. Which narrows it down to someone who understands the system, whatever is rattling is knocked out when the MPI fuse is pulled. Any ideas? Any thing that the MPI fuse controls that would cause no spark if it was bad? Let me know, I'm working as hard as i can to figure this out.

 

[sweetjumper32]

Today I replaced the transistor/ignitor and no help. Narrows it down. I unplugged the ECU to check for damage, it looked good, but I also cranked it with the ecu unplugged and received the exact same effect whether it was plugged in or not.

 

[dave99gst]

perhaps its the crank sensor

 

[sweetjumper32]

Borrowed an OBDII scanner from Knechts today. Hooked it up, and it didn't scan everything. It caught that my cel was on, but alot of scans could not be completed and no trouble codes were retrieved. We hooked it up to my friends tacoma, and it completed all the scans. Some of the scans that could not be completed on my car were the O2 sensor, a/c refridgerent, and a few others. I took the scanner back so I can't scan it anymore. Any idea why some scans couldn't be completed? And no trouble codes even though it realized CEL was ON? Thanks

 

[turbohcar]

A logger would be helpful in this situation, but that's just my opinion. Now, on the clicking noise. It's normal. It should only click for the first couple seconds the key is on in the car and should click several times rapidly. This is your injectors opening and closing putting fuel into the cylinders to start the car. It is normal and has done it the entire time you've owned the car, I guarantee it. When you take the MPI fuse out it keeps the injectors from firing.
Just a list of possible causes for no spark condition:

Cam angle sensor
crank angle sensor (easily damaged when the balance shaft belts snap)
transistor (you've already eliminated this one)
coil pack
spark plugs and wires (best to replace these anyway if you haven't recently)
ECU

It could be a number of these as well. Without some form of diagnostic tool you're pissing into the wind though.