My car will attempt to turn over - but it won't start.

• The battery checks out okay
• I replaced the main relay (The Hayne's Manual says that this is also the fuel pump relay) - still no go
• It won't start even with starting fluid

Any ideas? Here is a video of what happens when I try to start it.

 

Barring some severe mechanical problem, it sounds like an ignition problem (also seeing that the tach needle doesn't move when you crank it, i think its supposed to bounce a little bit?)

You can check if you are getting spark in a couple ways. First would be to use a timing light and see if it lights up. Otherwise you can pull a plug out and ground the electrode to the block and watch for spark.

Remember, you need three things for the engine to run once it turns over.

1. Fuel
2. Compression
3. Spark

You can rule out fuel since starting fluid should make it fire a couple times at least.

 

Thanks! I definitely should've checked for spark, I'm not sure why I didn't think about it earlier. When my girlfriend gets home, I'll go an get a spark tester, unless there's another way to check? I'll post updates once I check on that.

 

Is there a way to mark a post solved? It turns out it was the fuel filter! Just replaced that, and it's working fine now.

Just in case anybody comes across this thread in the future, there was spark being generated for all of the wired - I checked it with a spark tester. I tested the fuel pump, it was working great, so with that, I thought that I probably had a bad fuel filter.

Thank you, masospaghetti, for you help.