QuestionQUESTION: This car has been a great car. The other night I went to pick up my wife at work...got me there fine. She comes out thirty minutes later, I go to start the car and nothing. It'll just sit there and turn but never start. Get it towed home and start cracking. I've noticed a little tap coming from the bottom end so I went ahead and replaced the rod bearings (wasn't really sure how this could have any effect on it starting but...it needed to be done and it was the only problem I knew of).
Get it all back together, clean up a couple of electrical connections, clean out the EGR valve...nothing. Pulled the fuel lines, got squirted in the face with gas (so it has pressure) and the fuel rails have gas in them. Connected everything back up, squirted some starter fluid down the throttle body...fired right up. Purred like a kitten...till the fluid was gone. All relays and fuses are in ship shape, every electrical connection I could find has been cleaned and double checked.
So here I am. It starts with fluid so it must be getting fire. The rails have fuel in them so I don't really know whats going on here but I'm really pulling my hair out. This is our only vehicle at this point and I'm having to bum rides off of friends while I try to figure this out. Anything else I should check?
ANSWER: Hi Shaun,
Sorry for the delay but the internet has been very slow from here in California. I would wonder if you have a large vacuum leak that is diluting the mixture. Have you checked all the vacuum lines as shown on the underhood sticker? How about fault code readout: on-off-on-off-on and leave on using the ignition key and doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then count the flashes of the check engine light. Repeat for accuracy. Then let me know the counts.
Roland
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QUESTION: Hey Roland,
Thanks for the replay. Don't worry about a slow connection, I'm a Senior IT Tech at a University...I feel your pain daily.
I should have mentioned there are no codes. I gave it a check it gives out 12 and 55...apparently "begin list", "end list". I looked over the vacuum system...didn't see any slips or cracks...but I will certainly give them another look when I get home. Thanks again for the reply...hopefully my next reply will have some form of pertinent info for ya.
ANSWER: Hi Shaun,
I will await your inspection. The most typical cause of a no start without codes is an egr valve that is stuck slightly ajar so make sure that the stem is really at a dead stop in the closed position. Other than that the only other reason I am aware of is that the MAP sensor could be off-value but not so far as to set a fault code. That occured to me about a decade ago and only was detected via a DRB shop-level reader that saw the controller thought we were high in the mountains when we actually were near sea level. You might want to look into borrowing a DRB II to do that. I am on the West Coast, in the Bay Area, should you be nearby and I have that tool.
Roland
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QUESTION: Hey Roland,
I'm on the East coast or I'd be hitting you up for that.
Checked the Vacuum lines, found a small crack in the line that runs to MAP sensor...thought "hooray". Ran out got a new one. No change, so I took the EGR vavle back off and checked it. Seems to have good movement and it seems to be hitting all the way down against the metal ring inside. I don't know anyone that around here that has a DRB II...but I'll keep searching. Anything else I should be looking at?
Thanks,
Shaun
AnswerHi Shaun,
About the only other sensor that might impact the mixture would be the coolant temp sensor. You could see if it reads in the 7,000 +/- 3,000 ohm range when the engine is cold. If it reads down around 1,000 then that would mean it is asking for a mixture needed when the engine is warmed up, rather than when you are trying to start it. It surely seems like a too lean mixture situation because it will run on starter fluid. In the meantime I'll keep thinking about it.
You might also check the injector harness/wiring because although you have pressure it may very well be that the injectors aren't being 'driven' or that the 12v on the dark green/orange wire that is needed by each injector is missing in action (it should be there when you are cranking it over). I believe that you might also hear them click when they are called upon to inject but I haven't tried that with a 3.0L so I could be wrong.
Roland
