Question "TBI" Engine trys to start and run but acts like flooded situation. Looked at injector while friend cranked and there seems to be a "lot" of fuel spraying out. Car was running fine, shut it off and this problem appeared. Brought engine up to TDC and got 0 degrees on timing mark...so timing belt appears to be OK. Compression is OK. I had another chrysler car that did the same thing and turned out to be a MAP sensor. The MAP sensor (front of RT. shock Tower ?) on this one only has 2 wires going to it (simple off/on switch) so I tried it with wires "jumped" and "not jumped". Still won't start.
AnswerHi Joel,
I've had a similar situation on 2 occasions where I couldn't start my '89 2.5L non-turbo tbi engine. In both cases there were not fault codes stored in the memory of the engine controller. Have you read out your fault codes?
(Just turn the ignition key: Off-On-off-On-Off-On within a period of 5 seconds or less and leave it On. Then watch the check engine light to flash, pause, flash, pause,etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and make a note. After the flashing stops, group the numbers you noted into pairs to form two digit numbers. For example the last two sets of flashes will be 5 in each, forming the number 55 which is the code for "end of readout". Repeat the readout to make sure you have the numbers of flashes counted accurately. The code for a faulty MAP signal is 13 or 14.
Getting back to my experience, the first time the MAP was faulty in that it inaccurately measured the pressure, and only a mechanic with a diagnostic readout box was able to catch that problem when he saw the MAP was reporting that the car was positioned at 10,000 feet above sea level when we really were near sea level. The second time the problem was pretty much as you describe. No codes, had spark and fuel (too much). It turned out to be the fuel injector had become leaky and was emitting way to much gas to sustain a mixture that would ignite. So I fixed it by purchasing a new injector from the Chrysler dealer for $154 and installed it myself. The bad injector had an uneven wet spray pattern and dripped fuel even after I stopped cranking the engine.
So I would suggest you read for codes, and if nothing relevant to your problem comes up I would invest in a new injector.
The question of the '87 MAP is one I can't be sure about. The '89 is also mounted on the right side strut tower, but it has 3 wires: violet/white, dark green/red, and black/light blue which are respectively: 5 volt power, MAP sensor signal, and several sensors' signal return. I don't have the '87 diagrams so can't explain why you might have a 2-wire sensor, but that was the first year of the tbi efi usage on the 2.2 and 2.5 engines, I believe, and even during that year there were two types of engine controller (dual module and single module) in the same model.
Let me know if you get some interesting codes or have other questions.
Roland
