last night i tried to start my car to pick up some medicine, and the problem is the motor would turn but not fire up, i put in some fuel (i had an empty tank)no luck, the battery seems okay cause the radio and headlights turn on.
dont know what else could be wrong.
help is needed
thank you

 

Just because the battery powers your weak stereo and headlights doesn't mean that it can turn the starter enough.

Jump it and see what happens.

 

thank you very much i will try it out

 

i jumped it still not working any other ideas???

 

Pull your plugs and tell me what they look like.

Or check your plug wires first and make sure they are all on correctly.

 

Check ur distributor. Could be anything..from the rotor to the ignition coil/ignitor.

-Rod

 

thanks again for ur help guys,
well i did everything u guys told me to, and a little more, but still wouldnt start.
the WEIRD thing is that i pulled out my chipped p28 ecu and put in a p06 and the car started!!!!!
afterwards i swapped ecus and the car is fine again.
that was so weird maybe its because i was really low on fuel. hmmm i have no idea..
but thank you again guys
appreciate the help.

 

What could have caused that though? That's pretty weird.

 

lol yah its very weird,
well i think its because my tank was empty but i never had that problem before, even when it when it was on E.
oh well im not complaining my car is running now. WHEW!!!!

 

Crazy!

 

ive done that before, .... how long did your car sit on Empty?

mine sat on empty for 3 days one time..and it wouldnt start, even after i filled it up...so i reset ecu and it works...its like it was stuck on empty...

isss krazzy...

 

Don't confuse the conclusion with the evidence!

Putting fuel in your car didn't make any difference, so it wasn't the low fuel situation that caused the problem. Changing the ECU fixed the problem, so that WAS the cause. The fact that it runs with either ECU installed means the neither ECU is bad. However, changing them fixed the problem. So, I would say that a simple ECU reset would have taken care of the problem, whatever it might have been. Next time, try that first...

 

no not true at all,
i did reset the ecu twice. before i swapped ecus, and swapped it back
if you would like to hear the whole story of this crazy incident i will be more than happy to post.
it is such a crazy mystery i thought the motor was blown, but it runs fine now so im not complaining.

 

Go for it...

 

Did you prime the fuel system before starting???

 

okay here goes.(DAMN YOU BDC LOL!!!)

btw i have a b16a motor, w/ some minor bolt-ons obd1.

i tried starting my car last night (car was on E) no luck.

i went to gas station, got some gas in those red containers, and put gas in my car, tried starting it, no luck again. the motor would turn but it would not fire.

next day, i posted on h-t, some suggestions from members(thank you again), i tried to jump start battery, i checked firing order, i pulled out sparkplugs and they were fine, they smelled like gasoline, then i checked cams sprockets to make sure everything was lined up( i even went through the trouble to put motor on TDC) all to no luck. no luck to all of them.

next time i pulled out distributor (disconnected battery first), then i got it tested at autozone and the distributor was okay.

so i hooked everything up and tried to start it again. - same result, motor would turn but it would not fire.

so i did a comppression test afterwards.
the weirdest thing was that i got some really crappy compression figures.
#1 was 120, #2-4 was 60. and i thought my motor blew from the low figures (and that was with WOT, i did it right).

i hooked everything back up again. tried to start it but same result. -no luck

next i checked the wiring, everything seemed fine. then i decided to try my friends p06 ecu sitting in my garage.
i tried again to start it, and let it turn and it finally turned on, but as soon as i let go of the gas, the car died.
so i turned it again and started it but i kept my foot on the gas to keep it running.
afterwards, i let go the car just stayed on, and i was tripping out like wtf?!?!!?!?
i shut off the car, swapped back my chipped p28 ecu, and the car started fine again.

so its back to normal now, the car runs fine so im not complaining

whew now my hands are tired, thanks BDC LOL JK.

sorry it was so long i might be missing some minor details but that was basically what i did today (12-02-02)

 

yes i did prime it
before i would try to start the car, i would leave the key in the 'on' position to let the fuel flow, my fuel gauge showed that i was getting fuel (44psi)

 

good luck.

in the same boat

 

Two things:

Whenever you do a compression check; not that it would have helped this time; you should loosen your plugs SLIGHTLY and start your car for a few seconds. Then, turn it off and remove the plugs. If you don't do that, when you take your plugs out, carbon (and whatever) will fall into the cylinder. This 'crap' will transfer to the valve seats and give you false readings. By loosening the plugs a LITTLE and starting it, that 'crud' around the plug hole will get blown out of the cylinders.

I guess this means the engine kept running, right? - not that the starter kept turning with the engine running...