- Aug 21, 2002
- 18,368
- 11
- 81
My girlfriend's car no longer starts. She drove it less than 12 hours before we found it wouldn't start. It has 200k miles on it.
I swapped the battery without even looking at the car because at her last oil change they told her the battery was low on electrolyte and as far as she can remember, it's the original battery. That didn't do the trick. So here's the facts so far...
Car won't start
Battery is good
Car has gas in the tank
I pulled a spark plug and had her crank it, saw no spark with the plug grounded on the exhaust manifold
I pulled another plug from a different coil pack and tried the same, saw no spark
Engine seems to be getting fuel - I smell raw fuel when cranking with a plug out, but the plugs were not wet when I removed them
I checked all the fuses, none are blown (unless there's an inline fuse somewhere)
I tapped the relays in case one was stuck
Haven't had any luck so far. I've seen a few things on the Internet about clogged fuel filters with these cars, but that doesn't seem to be it since I smell raw gas when cranking with a plug removed. I'm guessing there's an ignition module that sits between the coil packs and the BCM, but I'm not sure how I'd test that short of buying a new one. I also read something on the Internet about the crank position sensor being a potential problem.
So I've got a few things to investigate with the fuel filter, crank position sensor, ignition module and BCM but I'm not sure where I should start. I may just go get a Haynes manual or something and go through their troubleshooting steps unless someone here has some ideas.
I swapped the battery without even looking at the car because at her last oil change they told her the battery was low on electrolyte and as far as she can remember, it's the original battery. That didn't do the trick. So here's the facts so far...
Car won't start
Battery is good
Car has gas in the tank
I pulled a spark plug and had her crank it, saw no spark with the plug grounded on the exhaust manifold
I pulled another plug from a different coil pack and tried the same, saw no spark
Engine seems to be getting fuel - I smell raw fuel when cranking with a plug out, but the plugs were not wet when I removed them
I checked all the fuses, none are blown (unless there's an inline fuse somewhere)
I tapped the relays in case one was stuck
Haven't had any luck so far. I've seen a few things on the Internet about clogged fuel filters with these cars, but that doesn't seem to be it since I smell raw gas when cranking with a plug removed. I'm guessing there's an ignition module that sits between the coil packs and the BCM, but I'm not sure how I'd test that short of buying a new one. I also read something on the Internet about the crank position sensor being a potential problem.
So I've got a few things to investigate with the fuel filter, crank position sensor, ignition module and BCM but I'm not sure where I should start. I may just go get a Haynes manual or something and go through their troubleshooting steps unless someone here has some ideas.