Not sure if you will be able to tell from this description, but a month ago my car stalled and it took me about five times to start it again. Last week it did the same thing, but this time wont start. It used to make a fast caughing sound like eh.eh.eh.eh, but now when I tried to start it today it seems at a slower pace and making a eh....ow.....eh.....ow.....eh......ow noise like it is slowing down. Is it my dist.? It is currently in my garage because of short funds, so I need to know for sure so I dont soend money on something that doesnt cure it. Sorry if this sounds confusing....any help will due. Thanks

 

The slowing-down part is just your battery running down. Got a battery charger? Hook it up for a while.

How old are your normal tune-up things? Spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, fuel filter, etc....

Can you hear the main relay clicking? Listen for the fuel pump running when you try it. Pull a plug wire & check for spark. Pull the plugs out - what do they look like? Wet with gas?

 

possibly but i'd check the starter too since the car is in the garage and you have time, just check the most likely stuff that could give problems starting the car. anybody you know have a the same car that can let you borrow a starter and distributor?

 

the slowing down is the battery........charge it......take out a plug wire and stick any plug into it and let someone crank it over to see if you're getting any spark....if not, look into your ignition components.......if so, check the fuel side of things....sounds like ruitine matenance to me....hope that helps....

 

Thanks for the responses. First, it couldnt be the starter because its turning over right? Seconed could it be a fuse? Also, the swap went in about 5 months ago and I have had no problems whats so ever, but then again the motor was used from Japan. The thing that baffels me is we did almost evrything to the car as in tune-up wise before we even turned the key once. We even got a new cap and rotor for the dist. so what else could go wrong in there? The only thing that we never had changed was the spark plugs. But could this be my problem? The reason I say this is because it was out of the blue rather than constant. What I mean by this is if it were the spark plugs, wouldnt it be hard to start up all the time? See mine always started up fine, but all of a sudden it did this? I guess in short would I be safe buying teh dist. if I dont see any spark?
Once Again thanks

 

did you check for spark, fuel?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mmuller &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did you check for spark, fuel?</TD></TR></TABLE>Well?

The reason I asked about tuneup stuff is you didn't say anything in your first post. Your plugs could have been in there for 250k miles for all I knew...

If you don't get spark you could buy a new distributor, if you just wanted to throw away money. That's why I asked you to check all that stuff. It could be a fuse or a broken wire... After you check ALL the stuff we said, we'll have a better idea what you should look for next. If you don't wanna spend lots of money, then you need to diagnose, don't just buy parts.

 

There is also the Ignition fuse in the underhood fuse box that may have blown. I've seen this happen before too, so check and double check everything before you start buying parts......