QuestionDear Roland,
I have bought a 97' Sebring Couple LXi that needed a new engine because the timing belt broke and the cam valve bent. So, I've put an used engine into the cam, a reman. distributor another crank sensor. AND no start. The 96' Sebring engine ran before being put into this car. What do you think it is? The car is getting gas, good compression and a orange spark - - it tries to start but not start. I was told that the PCM need to be a PCM for the same year of the engine or I need to put the PCM that went with that engine. Is this accurate?
AnswerHi M R,
I am not certain about the pcm engine intercompatibility. When you say tries to start, do you mean it catches but won't idle, or that it catches, idles for about 2 seconds and then dies? The former may be that the egr valve is sticking slightly ajar, so check that out. It has a valve stem located between the round vacuum-operated top and the body of the valve proper, located inside the flange that separates those two parts. The stem has a slot into which you can insert the tip of a screwdriver to lever the valve open (against spring-action) and close. The spring should close the valve to a dead stop. If it appears to be sticky in that action then spray some WD-40 on the stem where it enters the body of the valve and work it back and forth to loosen the action. When that valve is slightly ajar and you are trying to start it the mixture will be too lean to sustain an idle.
If on the other hand it starts up but dies in a couple of seconds, then it may be the anti-theft system having an issue communicating between the body computer the powertrain computer and the engine. If you don't have an anti-theft system then this point is moot.
I can't be sure whether there was anything different between the 96 and the 97 engine such that there would be any operating parameter differences. Did you find that it all hooked up ok? If anything, it could be something very subtle but I wouldn't know for sure. That engine was in use starting in '95 so you would think it would be fairly well stable by then.
So check the egr out.
The other thing would be to try to get fault codes 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 whether it will flash, pause, flash, etc. If so, count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure you have an accurate set of flash counts. Then write back with the result and we'll go from there. I assume that somewhere along the line of the replacement you disconnected the battery which erases all the old fault codes, so any new codes would apply to the installed engine. If not, do that now, then try and start it a few times to allow the PCM to recognize what might be wrong and tell you a code. Now this approach was phasing out in '96-7 so it may not work and then you would have to have a plug-in OBD-II reader to get them. But give it a try.
Roland
