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Followup To
Question -
Roland, I have a 1996 sebring convertable, which I drove home the next morning I could not get it started. I have no ignition and no fault codes. I use the car daily and one day it worked the next morning it wouldn't start. I tried carb cleaner in the intake to eliminate fuel but it made no change. Wiring diagram seems hard to find and I believe the coil and cam sensor are in the distributor but don't know if there are any checks you can make without removing it. I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thank you Mike
Answer -
Hi Mike,
Can you tell me which engine you have? I am not sure which of them might be involved here. By 'no ignition' I assume that you mean no spark, correct? How about the fuel pump, can you hear it run for a second or so when you turn on the ignition switch? If you can clarify these for me I may be of more help to you. And on the fault codes, are you still getting the 55 code (end of code readout)?
Roland
Roland, Sorry about that I have a 2.5 V6. I do mean no spark I believe the fuel pump is running, but just to eliminate that I sprayed some carb cleaner in intake still no joy. The rotor and inside of the dist. cap look okay I don't know how to check and see if the coils (primary&secondary) are working. I am trying to avoid buying a distributor which I may not be able to return, unless I'm sure that is the problem. No codes except 12,23, and 55 I had temp sensor disconnected because I took the intake plenum off. I had not hooked it up when I tried to check codes. Thanks Mike
AnswerHi Mike,
Lets assume this is a problem with the distributor/coil/cap/or rotor rather than with one of the timing/fuel synch sensors (of which there are 3 and ideally if one of the three were bad you would have gotten a code for it. And this assumes that the fuel pump is operating when you first turn on the ignition (for about a second then shuts off) and that it pumps while you are cranking (which verifies the 3 sensors are working and that the ASD relay is closing to provide power to the coil.
I assume that you have shown that you don't have spark using a spark plug with the shell grounded to the cylinder head with the spark plug wire inserted into the coil tower (thus by-passing the rotor and the cap) while someone cranks it for you.
To check for the coil's wiring to the rest of the system, note that there is a 6-way and a 2-way (with only 1 wire) connector to the coil/distributor. Using an ohmmeter:
check for continuity between pin 11 of the pcm and pin 1 of the 6-way (black/gray) which is the ignition coil driver wire;
check for contiunity between 6-way pin 2 (black) and ground;
check for continuity between PCM pin 6 and pin 2 of the 2-way connector (dark green/orange or black/red?) which is the ASD relay output wire;
check the resistor in the distributor cap itself:measure between the center button and the ignition coil terminal; it should be about 5,000 ohms.
You can check the primary of the coil by measuring the resistance between the socket at the coil where the single wire (black/red or dark green/orange?) of the 2-pin connector is normally connected and a ground: it should be 0.6 to 0.8 ohms
The secondary coil resistance can be measured between the coil tower and the same point as just described above on the 2-way socket at the coil: it should read 12 to 18k ohms.
There is a resistor in the distributor cap: it should read 5,000 ohms between the center button and the tower terminal.
Check the rotor for continuity (no resistance value is given in the manual).
While I have focussed on the coil, etc. be aware that the failure of any of the sensors could cause the ASD relay to open which would kill the spark too, so that is why you want to verify that the ASD relay is in fact closed (there is voltage at the fuel pump when the engine is being cranked, or you have 12V on the red/black or dark green orange? wire on the 2-way connector coming to the distributor which is the ASD output voltage.
That is about as much as I can offer tonight. Let me know if this is useful and if not what else you might need to know.
Roland
If all those tests check out AND we get no related fault codes, the manual suggests replacing the distributor if you indeed have no spark.
