QuestionQUESTION: I have a 94 Sebring LXI 2.5L 76K miles. 2 years ago I replaced the water pump and timing belt. It has developed a transmission fluid leak that I have not worked on yet. Other than that the car runs fine and has no problems. A few days ago it was parked in the wrong place so I started it and moved it to the other side of the garage and shut it off, total run time about 1 minute. Yesterday I needed to go out and it would not start, turned as normal but would not light off. I used another vehicle for the day. Today I got on your site and learned a lot so I checked for spark, it was there. Fuel pump made noise for a second or so after turning on the key. None of the fuses were blown. It turned normally and sounded like one cylinder was trying to fire. I had my granddaughter turn the engine while I listened to the exhaust pipe. Sure enough it was trying to fire and was puffing out black smoke when it did, apparently flooded. I used the flooded start procedure, full throttle and turned it until it started, just like a carberated engine it ran rough with lots of black smoke until it cleaned up and ran smooth. QUESTION Why would a fuel injected engine flood like that and can I expect further problems down the road?
ANSWER: Hi Fred,
Try to see if there is a stored fault code using the ignition key: "on-off-on-off-on-and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains "on", to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to be sure of an accurate set of flash counts. Then tell me the counts in order of appearance. We'll go from there.
Please read the PS below and respond to it.
Thanks,
Roland
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QUESTION: Sorry, I forgot to tell you I did that and there were no codes stored. All I got was 55. I learned how to do that from your site. What a wonderful piece of information. Thank you
ANSWER: Hi Fred,
My first suspicion is that the fuel injector is starting to leak fuel when it is not being energized to do so. That is how they begin to fail. Start the engine after having removed the top of the air cleaner box so that you can observe the throat of the throttle body while the engine is running. Notice that the fuel spraying is a very fine mist and that the spray pattern is symmetrical as it strikes the valve plate. Then have a helper turn off the engine while you watch to be sure that the spray stops immediately and there is no after drip. It either the pattern is asymmetric or shows drips or it drips after shut down then that of course will cause a build-up of unburned fuel in the intake manifold, e.g. a flood. If so, then you have to buy a new injector and replace the old one. It costs about $150 but is fairly easy to do.
Let me know what you see.
Please do rate/nominate me if you believe I deserve that.
Thanks,
Roland
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QUESTION: Hi Roland,
Perhaps I misrepresented the engine. It is a port injected 2.5 L V6 the spray patterns can not be seen. The engine is starting and performing normally now. Does it have a cold start enrichment system that could be beginning to fail or could this just be a one time glitch? It is puzzling to me.
Thanks for your help and your time
Fred
AnswerHi Fred,
Sorry for the misunderstanding...I didn't realize that the Sebring had a '94 model and thus the 2.5L V-6, I was thinking about the 2.5L 4 cyl. in use in other models that year. With no stored fault codes and a one-time occurrence I would not think there is any item that would explain the flooding. About the only thing that does prevent starting and doesn't cause a code is the egr valve which may be sticking slightly ajar. So check out to be sure the valve stem is moving freely back and forth and that the internal spring-action is closing it tightly. You could spray some WD-40 on the stem where it inters the valve body to loosen up the action.
It is mounted sideways near the thermostat housing and the valve stem is hidden partially by a flange located between the round vacuum-operated top and the body of the valve.
Thanks for the rating and nomination both of which you can do again for this answer if you would be so kind.
Roland
