New to the forum, but i've lurked and used info from here before to fix a hard start problem about 6 months ago (main relay...thanks)

The car has right around 200k on it and generally runs great. The other morning on the way to work after about 10 min. it started to die, i coasted off, kicked to park, stabbed the throttle and it came back good as new, albeit the CEL was on. i decided to shut it off. It would not refire until after about 2 min. I checked codes instantly and have a code 16. When it did refire, no CEL. Ran great for 50 miles. Shut it off at work, wouldn't refire. End of day, fired no problem. Ran 50 miles home and another 20 or 30 running around that night. Car was started and shut down 3 or 4 times. No problems. THis morning, it struggled to start. Went 2 miles and was total DOA. IT cranks, sputters, but will not start.

I do have spark. Verified at all plugs. I put a new coil, cap and rotor in because I thought maybe it was weak, because even when I spray carb cleaner down the throttle body, it won't fire even with that.

The main relay appears to work. I hear the click, and I pulled an injector and cranked it and fuel gushed at the injector hole. I also looked down in past the butterflies and I see fuel coming from the injectors. So I think I'm getting fuel.

Could the ignitor be bad? I wouldn't have spark though right?
How about the fuel pump? To my knowledge, they are either dead, or not dead. Could it be weak? Do they get weak?
Could it be the main relay again, even though I have fuel up to the injector?

The code 16 thing has me lost......

Any help is greatly appreciated. Apologies for the length.

Jeremy

edit: I should note the car is a bone stock DX model.
I just did some more checking and noticed that I now can only hear the relay click when I finally attempt to start. No click at the on position. Also, in the on position, I have no light on my ECU and it shows no codes. If I bump the key 3 or 4 times like to prime the fuel rail, it almost attempts to start, but still nothing. Main Relay?


Modified by jmondock at 6:49 PM 5/21/2008

 

code 16 usually means one or more of your fuel injectors is bad.

has the car been swapped? or is it stock? because if someone swapped it to mpfi, you could be having issues with an injector resistor box not being wired right, or wired crappily.

 

I am having the same problems out of my '91 dx rex! I've changed plugs, wires, cap, rotor, main relay, and drained the fuel tank. Please help us with this annoying problem!