HELP please. ADVICE NEEDED

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:56 pm

alright so here's the story. started about a week ago. my car would randomly not start. basically like it had a mind of its own. finally wouldn't start for good or well to the point i was draining my battery from trying to start it for 30 minutes. it turns over, it has fuel pressure(so its not the fuel pump) i checked the rail about 2 minutes ago. now i unplugged one of the coil pack wires from the car and i got no spark. with it plugged in a pulled out laying on the valve cover and without it plugged in at all. we replaced the battery( i had the original battery in it lol 7 years

) last weekend and didn't have any problems until saturday of this weekend. where it just didnt' want to start once, then sunday it got worse and now i'm here.

the person who owned this car before me can seriously hurt themselves because whatever they did to this thing is pissing me off!

so i'm assuming its either the crank sensor as i've been told or the coil pack is shot.

opinions are needed and would be wonderful if you could tell me some things to test this. thanks

how often do crank sensors go bad...

and or coil packs?

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:43 pm

Is the engine overly clean? If so sombody probaly steam cleaned/pressure washed it and got water into someting electrial give all connections a wd-40 shower and see if that helps. If not start with the coil mostly because it on top and easy to work around. The crank sensor would give you a CEL/trouble code.

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:48 pm

bone-yard-racing wrote:Is the engine overly clean? If so sombody probaly steam cleaned/pressure washed it and got water into someting electrial give all connections a wd-40 shower and see if that helps. If not start with the coil mostly because it on top and easy to work around. The crank sensor would give you a CEL/trouble code.

haha the engine is not overly clean. LOL

can it throw a code without the check engine light coming on?

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:55 pm

how many miles does the car have? has the coil ever been replaced before?

Are you getting any power to the starter?

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:56 pm

miles i belive it has about 72,000 on it

and i don't believe the coil has ever been changed.

and not sure about the starter. i dont' have a voltmeter to test it.

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:58 pm

Good, and no if you have a code the CEL would be on, make sure the coil is plugged in tightly. It could also be an alternator (replaced battery made it better), are the plugs and wires in decent shape? Do you have some big heavy key chain? If so you might have broken you igintion switch.

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:00 pm

i have a dodge key chain but it isn't too heavy. yeah the plugs and wires are in decent shape. i'm not too sure about the altenator. my boyfriend checked that with his voltmeter last weekend and it was putting out good numbers. so i don't believe thats the case because i suspected that too.

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:04 pm

Radio shack voltmeters are like $9. Make sure that all the wires going into the plugs in the coil and ECU are tight, if not just push.

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:07 pm

bone-yard-racing wrote:Radio shack voltmeters are like $9. Make sure that all the wires going into the plugs in the coil and ECU are tight, if not just push.

i pushed in all the wires going into the coil and into the ecu and still nothing.

could it be a dead spot in the starter? Or we still leanin towards the coil pack or crank sensor...

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:10 pm

If it runs good once you get it started than I would have to say starter. Occaisonaly you have to give the R/T some throttle to get it to start,you try that?

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:17 pm

bone-yard-racing wrote:If it runs good once you get it started than I would have to say starter. Occaisonaly you have to give the R/T some throttle to get it to start,you try that?

yes and it doesn't work. it runs great once it got started. the wires to the plug that plugs into the coil pack were stripped open so we re taped them with electical tape and normally if i basically force them hard into the plug it starts. i have another spare one but it'd require a soder gun and i dont' have one.
i dont' have a voltmeter because my dad has it in somebodys truck... so.. i don't know what to do right now.

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm

Check battery cables and starter relay(under hood fuse box)

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:29 pm

i would go ahead and pull the coil pack cable and try to start the car real quick. if the starter is good you should hear it cranking and the car attempt to start.

If not then try again and listen in near the starter (under the intake manifold). If the sounds you hear are just like you have been hearing while you had the coil pack on then i would suspect it to be your starter.

If it sounds any different then it could very well be your coil pack or coil pack connector.

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:29 pm

I have a question. Does the engine sometimes turn over but not fire or does it sometimes not turn over. Im confused. If the engine is turning over and its not firing then its not the starter or solenoid. If the starter sometimes does not turn the engine over then its a starter situation. probably a bad starter.

going with the "its not the starter route" now, you said your bf pulled a wire to see if there was spark? how exactly did he do this? An easy way i have found is to pull a spark plug and place it in the wire, ground it out against the engine block and have someone crank the car. if you see spark or hear the tick from the spark then its not on that particular side of the coil pack. do the same for the other side of the coil pack (because our coils are actually 2 coils in one) and see if it sparks. If there is no spark that has to be your problem. because if it has fuel then the other thing it needs would be spark, and air of course.

good luck tuning
J

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:35 pm

I had my starter go out on my fifth avenue, had a hell of a time starting up, had to crank it forever. The crank was real slow like it was out of breath. A new starter fixed that problem.

I also had trouble with my 96 Neon. One day, it just didn't want to start, it was cranking over fine just didn't start. Turns out my fuel pump was bad.

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:45 pm

Jamie wrote:
going with the "its not the starter route" now, you said your bf pulled a wire to see if there was spark? how exactly did he do this? An easy way i have found is to pull a spark plug and place it in the wire, ground it out against the engine block and have someone crank the car. if you see spark or hear the tick from the spark then its not on that particular side of the coil pack. do the same for the other side of the coil pack (because our coils are actually 2 coils in one) and see if it sparks. If there is no spark that has to be your problem. because if it has fuel then the other thing it needs would be spark, and air of course.

he did that. well he had me do that.. .but thats what he told me to do lol

OB · Post by OB » Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:02 am

kevo wrote:i would go ahead and pull the coil pack cable and try to start the car real quick. if the starter is good you should hear it cranking and the car attempt to start.

If not then try again and listen in near the starter (under the intake manifold). If the sounds you hear are just like you have been hearing while you had the coil pack on then i would suspect it to be your starter.

If it sounds any different then it could very well be your coil pack or coil pack connector.

mmm hmm

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 5:35 am

OB wrote:
kevo wrote:i would go ahead and pull the coil pack cable and try to start the car real quick. if the starter is good you should hear it cranking and the car attempt to start.

If not then try again and listen in near the starter (under the intake manifold). If the sounds you hear are just like you have been hearing while you had the coil pack on then i would suspect it to be your starter.

If it sounds any different then it could very well be your coil pack or coil pack connector.
mmm hmm

worked for me when i was checking my coil pack. You can hear the starter kick in, engine tries to start but obviously wont go anywhere without spark.

Maybe you have something else to offer this thread other than your ego.

OB · Post by OB » Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:14 am

I was agreeing with you smarty pants

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:02 am

OB wrote:I was agreeing with you smarty pants

bah! interweb sarcasm(or lack thereoff) pwnz me again!

haha, sorry dude.