Car won't crank...acting strange

[Therian]

here's the symptoms

key on engine off fuel pump primes, all seems well. As soon as I go to crank, nothing happens. Sometimes if after trying to crank, I put it back to key on engine off, the fuel pump starts clicking like mad, and sometimes the CCRM does also. Also, if I do not give the car time before trying to start again, the fuel pump refuses to prime. Also, if I leave it for a bit and try to start it again sometimes it tries to crank a bit (hardly anything though) What the hell is going on?

The starter should be fine as I asked my mechanic to check it when I got the clutch in.

Other question - does the red or the green wire go to the EGR?

 

[bill302]

check batter connections (clean and tighten) and test battery at a local autoparts store is where i would start.this time of year is especially hard on batterys...most batterys will go out in the start of summer (hottest time of the year) or at the start of winter...

 

[bill302]

oh and the other question does the red or the green wire go to the EGR? these are not wires there vacuum lines and the green connects to the egr valve.below is the vacuum diagram

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

the vac. lines are not the problem. Check a couple of things and get back to tell me if it worked. On the Pass. side firewall there is a largish black connector with a bunch of small wires, make sure that that is clicked tight. A more common problem, however is the small red wire(12g) that has a spade terminal that goes directly onto the starter. This trigger's the starter's built in starting relay. clean and make sure its plugged in. It should get power when your turn the key....the large red wire on the starter(4g) should be constant hot.

 

[Therian]

vac lines were right...and I knew they had no bearing on the problem...just wanted to make sure they were right.

I checked the fuse box in the engine bay, and I had one 30w out and what looks to be one relay missing and another fuse missing. Anybody have a quick link for the engine fuse box with the wattages and what they relate to?

I'll be checking the pass. firewall and the starter

to add to the wierdness...the CCRM continued clicking, but as soon as I touched the window control it stopped clicking...and there was a direct relationship between me using the window control and the CCRM freaking out. Also, the fuel pump seems to be making unusual noises. if I have the key on, a low frequency sound comes from the area and doesn't stop (priming is more high pitched, lasts about half a second)

I'll update as I progress

 

[HISSIN50]

vac lines were right...and I knew they had no bearing on the problem...just wanted to make sure they were right.

I checked the fuse box in the engine bay, and I had one 30w out and what looks to be one relay missing and another fuse missing. Anybody have a quick link for the engine fuse box with the wattages and what they relate to?

I'll be checking the pass. firewall and the starter

to add to the wierdness...the CCRM continued clicking, but as soon as I touched the window control it stopped clicking...and there was a direct relationship between me using the window control and the CCRM freaking out. Also, the fuel pump seems to be making unusual noises. if I have the key on, a low frequency sound comes from the area and doesn't stop (priming is more high pitched, lasts about half a second)

I'll update as I progress

FWIW, the fuel pump relay is in the CCRM.

As requested, interior fusebox and underhood fuse box.

When checking cables for cranking (it should crank without the CCRM even hooked up), using jumper cables to augment existing cables (run the jumper in parallel to an existing cable) can really speed testing up. Toss a jumper from the motor to the frame (engine ground). If you lose the main motor ground, the starter wont work for poop.

Good luck.

 

[Therian]

update:

It looks as though my battery charger has gone south...it was claiming 100% charge when this was definitely not the case (hooked it up to another and it was reading 14%). I'm hoping this was the cause of most of the problems, I'll report back tomorrow.

JT, thanks for the diagrams...looks like I'll finally be able to get that cig. lighter to work.

 

[HISSIN50]

Nicely figured out.

I have an automatic charger that acts like a PITA when a battery is pretty toasted. It magically says I'm done after about 30 mins, and I know it's just a surface charge. I kinda miss the old chargers that didnt kick-off when they deemed they were done.

Me-thinks you'll be up and running tomorrow.

 

[Therian]

update....(JT I wish this had fixed itself the way we both expected) battery fully charged but problems still exist. Here is some unusual problems:

- windows go extremely slowly when going up and down.
- stereo works perfectly fine
- fuel pump primes only once in a while
- CCRM is continuing to click like crazy (and it stops as soon as I use the window controls)
- sometimes there seems to be clicking from the big black anti theft box in my trunk
- Car refuses to crank
- Fuel pump makes continuous low frequency noise when trying to crank

Would a bad 12v battery to starter cable cause such problems?

 

[HISSIN50]

It still sounds like (from my screen) a battery or battery cable issue. Do you have a jumper battery you can use for testing?

A bad battery will lead to issues very very much like that. I might guess that if you turn on your headlights, they're dim or would get dim pretty quick.

 

[Pokageek]

Bad cell?

 

[RaceDvr50]

I'm gonna agree with Hissin50 you must have a cable problem. If you have a really good pair of jumpers go ahead and hook one cable from the other car to the block and the other to the power in side of the solenoid and try that. You could have a bad battery also check the voltage at the battery when you crank. It shouldn't drop more than a couple of volts tops if it is good. It should be at about 13.5 volts just sitting there. Clean your connections well and see what you can find.

 

[SRLMARK]

Had the same problem a while back same things happening. On mine it ended up being a bad Neg Battery cable. I had the clicking of the Module in the trunk clicking also!



Mark

 

[Therian]

UPDATE:

Changed the cables, and jumped it with the Lexus and it fired right up. Thank god. JT you were right all along...and I definitely thought battery before anything, but the bad charger totally threw me through a loop...especially when it took all night to charge on the brand new charger. and that crappy tire said that the battery was fine.

It's running, and I'm happy. except that I have no EGR tube and my engine bay is being filled with hot, noxious gasses

Thanks guys

~Duncan (don't think I've ever mentioned my name before... )

 

[bill302]

glad to hear the good news, is the battery holding a charge....

 

[Therian]

battery is fubar. I'll be getting a new one ASAP