Looking for ideas why car wont start

[WhiteDevil]

So on Saturday i was driving my car under normal acceleration and it started bucking and popping and backfiring. Then there was a loud squeal and it died. It will crank just fine but wont even come close to starting. I have 30# of fuel pressure. So i figured it was something with spark. I finally had a chance to check and yeah it does have spark. The dizzy is tight and does not appear to have moved at all. What do you guys think i should check on first?

 

[divit250r]

Was it a loud 'squeak'? Like a metal-to-metal sound? How was the oil pressure when it happened? Just general questions, but if you have spark when it's turning over, the cam must still be turning as well, so that rules out timing chain issues. Were there any other noises or signs of trouble?

Scott

 

[1TallMF]

Wow, I can't think of what might have caused that, even if a bearing squeeked due to it running out if oil (if it were a bad oil pump) it wouldn't be cranking so normally, and would probably still try to fire when you crank it. I dunno, I'd probably do a compression check first. Let us know what you find.

 

[BlackVert]

usually squeals for me come when the belt slips on a pulley. i wonder if something happened that caused oil or coolant to leak out and get on a pulley. i'm just thinking that the squeal might have been an audible indication of another problem (the problem that causes it to not want to start)

i'd probably do a compression check soon and make sure the spark is making it all the way to the cylinders.

pulling the valve covers may also uncover something in the valve train ...

any codes?

 

[WhiteDevil]

I just turned the engine over to TDC #1 and it seems as though the dizzy is pointing to the #3 terminal. My dizzy has come loose before and caused the car to die because the timing was so far off. It is just wierd that it doesnt show any signs of moving. And is still tight at hell in there. I guess ill try and set the timing and see if that fixes it.

Edit: Also right when it started bucking and backfiring the first thing i checked was my oil pressure and it was still at a solid 50psi.

 

[95strokerPSU]

My car shut off once with a loud sqeak noise and it turned out the TFI module wasn't grounding properly. Don't know what caused the sqeaking noise though.

 

[WhiteDevil]

My car shut off once with a loud sqeak noise and it turned out the TFI module wasn't grounding properly. Don't know what caused the sqeaking noise though.

Did your car have no spark after that or was there still some?

 

[95strokerPSU]

I don't know, I didn't have a chance to check. I was on my way to Autozone to get a new TFI and it died in the neighborhood right behind the Autozone. I walked to the store and swapped TFIs in the street and then all was well.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Update still no luck. I have fuel. I changed out my MSD Dizzy for a stock one. It did not change anything. When i use my timing light on almost all wires i get no flash. On a few wires i got some spark. On my coil wire it seems to spark all the time. It did the same thing on both dizzys. What is the exact control of the ignition module? What would be the symptoms of a bad one? Can a coil just give weak spark? What are the symptoms of a bad coil. I seem to have an intermittent spark problem.

Edit: Also i did a compression check and it was a perfect 180-190psi on all cylinders

 

[HISSIN50]

Do you have injector pulsing? If not, and you have spark issues, that can be the PIP.

A coil can be weak. You can check primary and secondary coil resistance (I always have to look the specs up myself).

The coil gets constant accessory 12 volts and the TFI module sends a ground pulse to make it discharge. When a test light is biased across the coil's electrical connector, look for it to flash like a pulsar star. If it always does but the spark egressing the coil looks funny or is intermittant, that suggests coil. The spark needs to be blue and hot when bench testing - if not, when suscepted to compression and fuel saturation, it'll snuff out.

The crude pathway of the ignition is PIP to TFI to computer to TFI to coil.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Do you have injector pulsing? If not, and you have spark issues, that can be the PIP.

A coil can be weak. You can check primary and secondary coil resistance (I always have to look the specs up myself).

The coil gets constant accessory 12 volts and the TFI module sends a ground pulse to make it discharge. When a test light is biased across the coil's electrical connector, look for it to flash like a pulsar star. If it always does but the spark egressing the coil looks funny or is intermittant, that suggests coil. The spark needs to be blue and hot when bench testing - if not, when suscepted to compression and fuel saturation, it'll snuff out.

The crude pathway of the ignition is PIP to TFI to computer to TFI to coil.

I put my tweecer on data log and it shows an injector pulsewidth going while i crank it. Plus on my wideband i can see its getting fuel and i can smell it after cranking it for a while. I changed dizzys thinking it could be a pip issure but that didnt help at all. On bench testing there was spark but it was orangeish. SO maybe it is my coil. I should have an extra one around here but i have to freakin find it first. That will be my next try.

 

[WhiteDevil]

I tried a new coil, dizzy, and ignition module. Nothing really helped. The new coil now makes it kinda sputter but still not much. My shift light had been acting up lately which is wired into the coil ground so im gonna go check that. and see whats up. Any other ideas?

 

[BlackVert]

pull the spout connector and/or get the tfi checked

or maybe a ground wire came loose?

 

[HISSIN50]

I agree with Chris about having the TFI tested.

If you can see consistant injector pulsing in your DL but your spark is hinky, the coil and the TFI are the first two places to look. You've hit the coil already.

Good luck.

 

[phatwebs]

Car won't crank or start

Hi guys,

Here is what happened today:

Normally, the battery gauge needle is in the upper part of the normal range. On my drive home from work, my tachometer started going wild, went to zero for awhile, then returned to normal. The car started to hesitate just a bit on acceleration. The ABS light came on. The battery gauge needle was now at the lower end of the normal range. I parked the car in my garage and turned it off. I came back about 15 minutes later and the car will not start. I can hear the starter trying to engage, but the engine barely turns and the starter makes a buzzing or clicking noise. The engine fails to crank or start. I've got 12 volts across the battery terminals, so it seems the battery is charged. I haven't done a thing to the car recently, just driving it daily. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

 

[HISSIN50]

Hi guys,

Here is what happened today:

Normally, the battery gauge needle is in the upper part of the normal range. On my drive home from work, my tachometer started going wild, went to zero for awhile, then returned to normal. The car started to hesitate just a bit on acceleration. The ABS light came on. The battery gauge needle was now at the lower end of the normal range. I parked the car in my garage and turned it off. I came back about 15 minutes later and the car will not start. I can hear the starter trying to engage, but the engine barely turns and the starter makes a buzzing or clicking noise. The engine fails to crank or start. I've got 12 volts across the battery terminals, so it seems the battery is charged. I haven't done a thing to the car recently, just driving it daily. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

Welcome. I would recommend that you cut and paste your post into a new thread. This keeps the replies from being confused and the thread from becoming massively derailed.

You will want to charge the battery up (12.0 volts is severely discharged). Then go over your battery connections, particularily the PDC connection (where the battery cable connects to the underhood fusebox).

Good luck.

 

[Cheyeter]

what about the MAF sensor?! i know i jst went threw the same thing, well mine wasnt bucking, but it was popping and back firing. i was told to unplug it and see if it would go in to safe mode. It would start up when it was unplugged but not when it was plugged in.

 

[phatwebs]

Welcome. I would recommend that you cut and paste your post into a new thread. This keeps the replies from being confused and the thread from becoming massively derailed.

You will want to charge the battery up (12.0 volts is severely discharged). Then go over your battery connections, particularily the PDC connection (where the battery cable connects to the underhood fusebox).

Good luck.

Will do, thanks!

 

[WhiteDevil]

Yeah dont hijack my threead man, lol

 

[rj95svt]

If you have 30 pounds of fuel pressure after you cycle the switch a few times I might would look at that. My old 89 decided not to crank one night and it ended up being the fuel filter being stopped up. The car had fuel pressure but just not enough to crank. It had us puzzled until we tried spraying starting fluid into the inake tract and it cranked and went dead. We put a fuel filter on it and it ran fine. The funny thing is that the fuel filter we took off didn't seem stopped up at all. Your problem sounds spark related but if you already replaced the dizzy, TFI module and coil I would check this to make sure.