Hey fellas, I'm in a real bind here and I'm at my wits end at the moment. I need someone else's perspective on this.

Yesterday after work, try to start car and it turns nicely but doesn't catch. Give it a second try and it fires up fine. Drive home, it's fine. Park the car. Come back this morning and it cranks but won't catch. This time it's not catching no matter how long I try. It's cranking nice and consistent.

Things I've looked at:

- Spark on plugs 1 and 2, I didn't bother checking 3 or 4. Held the plug to a ground and saw spark.
- Fuel pump appears to be priming. I can hear it working, removing the gas cap results in hearing the pressure escaping. Loosened the service bolt on the fuel rail, fuel came out. Did not check the injectors yet.
- Dist. cap appears to be good, plus I had spark. Rotor is turning, so the timing belt appears to be good.

There was some oil in spark plug tubes 2 and 4, but the contacts appear to be good, so I'm not too worried about that.

Main relay was replaced recently, as well as fuel filter, plugs, dist cap & rotor, wires. Did a valve lash adjustment not too long ago as well. Timing belt done 39k KM ago. ECU and backup fuses look okay. IG relay looks okay.

So, things I can think of that I haven't checked:
- Compression (but I would have expected more signs before this happened). I don't have a compression tester either.
- Fuel injectors/ECU (How likely? What's the easiest way to test this?)

Anyone else have any ideas? I drive 45 minutes to work, this is really going to suck if I can't get it running by Monday.

 

Check the ground to the Fuel Injectors. or just check them, they may be bad.

 

Alright, will do. I'll try and get a multimeter and a compression tester as well. Any other ideas?

 

What color was the spark. It's possible to not have a strong enough spark to run the car. If you have a yellow or orange spark it may not be enough to run the car. I've seen it several times when someone has a car towed in and swears they have plenty of spark.

 

I think it was blue/white, but we'll see if you're right. I had to get it towed in, I don't have time to play mechanic when I have a 45 minute drive to work on Monday to worry about

I'll post the reason when I get the car back for the archives.

 

For the archives, Under Advisement nailed it. It was weak spark. So, even if spark is present, you could still have a spark problem.

In my case, it was fixed by replacing the ignition coil. The spark plugs and dist/cap were replaced for good measure.

An expensive lesson, but I'll know to look out for weak spark in the future

 

okay u guys here the thing......

car need 4 main items to start..
air
spark.
fuel
compression...

most of the time is spark or fuel......

you can think of compression but it is machanical......in my experence rarely that compression is the cause in no start.....


i would check timing if it's correct.. '
if your car start up previous and was running fine.

or you could have not enough fuel pressure.....

i recomend chek more into spark and fuel