Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 22:17:31 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Belanger <belanger@FLUID.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Belanger <belanger@FLUID.COM>
Organization: Fluid, Inc.
Subject: Uncle... '91 won't catch
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Greetings all,
After scouring Gerry and trying to digest about a million messages with
the topic of "won't start," pouring through Haynes and Bentley, I'm at a
loss.
Here's the scenario:
I have a '91 Automatic, originally from Florida that I picked up about 6
months ago in California. She's always purred(apart from a month of
cold stalls, but that went away). About a week ago, I was driving back
from work had gone about 5 blocks when she just died at a light and
wouldn't start. Plenty of juice and the starter cranked, but she
wouldn't catch. It was raining early that day, so I chalked it up to
some electrical problem, but after a week in a dry garage, she's still dead.
Here are the things checked and/or replaced:
- Fuel: half a tank
- Battery: removed and fully charged
- Battery contacts cleaned and greased
- New cap, rotors, wires
- New plugs - old ones looked very clean
- Checked coil resistance per Bentley
- Checked voltage coming off Hall wiring connector per Bentley
- Checked air flow meter resistance per Haynes
- Checked fuel relay on ignition - clicks
- Checked fuel pump on ignition - pressurizes
- Checked and cleaned two ground bolts near coil
- Checked every visible connector within the engine - no corrosion
Odd things:
- rotor and inside of cap *heavily* scored at contact points.
- Figured it hadn't been replaced in a while.
- Power steering pressure sensor disconnected.
- However, it was covered in grease, so it had been disconnected for a
long time.
- Wiring harness at tee near left rear lights, split with some cuts.
- Suggested the previous owner had some electrical problems that were
troubleshot.
So none of this points to a clear culprit to me. The only remaining
tests on the ignition system listed in Bentley that I haven't done
involve the ECU, which I'm not comfortable screwing with yet. Also,
having never owned a fuel injected car before(god bless the carburetor),
I've resisted anything beyond superficial fuel system tests.
Is anyone aware of a thorough checklist of how to troubleshoot such a
problem. I'd really like to be able to track this down myself, but am
at a loss to what to do next.
Thanks,
MB
|