Car will not start. Disty?

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 21st, 2007, 12:34 am

I searchd for about a half hour and didn't find anything to help me in my situation.
::The Problem::

On the way to physical therapy on thursday (about a 10 min drive), my car would studder and lose power when accellerating at WOT or near WOT. If I took it slow when accellerating t ran like normal. At the end of my trip on thursday at a redlight about 10 yards before the physcical therapy building it got really bad ans I had to accelerate so slow to keep it from studdering that I never got out of first before I got to the PT building. After 2 hours of PT I came out and it would not start. My father said it was cranking fast but I didn't notice any difference from when I normally start it really. We both smelled fuel too. car ran fine before this and I've owned it for about 2 years.

::Diagnostics details::

I have Scleroderma (thats why I go to PT) so I cannot do alot of these tests to check for problems I found in the search because the cold causes pain and lack of movement in my hands and I'm garageless. I did manage to get the hood open though and pull a plug off the disty and let it sit sort've half plugged in. I had my dad do a quick crank when he picked me up to take me home and I saw no spark...I even touched the plug and wiggled it around in the cap and saw or heard nothing as far as spark.

I'm assuming it is the disty but it's a pricey thing to buy and end up not needing. Can anyone tell from these details what it could be? or possibly know of some tests I can do or things I can look for that are fairly simple and quick? thank you very much for the help!

bubsy83 · Post by **bubsy83** » January 21st, 2007, 9:50 am

My car wouldn't start because of the cold, I did not have to slow accelleration deal, but I ended up replacing the spark plugs and changing the oil and filter because of the the gas (something about contaminating the oil in the engine), I dunno for sure. Anyway, that's all I did and the car is starting great and driving great. In my case it was something simple and hopefully it will be for you as well!!! Good luck!!

PWRD_BY_HKS · Post by **PWRD_BY_HKS** » January 22nd, 2007, 2:12 pm

did you try a push start...if it starts with a push start... more than likely its gonna be your ignition coil...JUST THE COIL!!!! but about that whole power lossage...i would say disty...if you know anyone in the mx-third community that lives around your house or close by tell them to just let you try it...

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 22nd, 2007, 2:23 pm

I havent tried push starting it but I hardly see how push starting it when it cranks just fine would make it start. I'm going to pull the plugs and inspect/replace those while I'm at it...and then get a new distributor. I need my car on the road pretty bad so hopefully my assumptions are right and I'm not wasting $250.

tehbrookzorz · Post by **tehbrookzorz** » January 22nd, 2007, 5:40 pm

I'm pretty sure that whole push start thing is not a test of the coil, but a test of one of the two 'crank sensors.'
They're not both crank sensors, but that's just how some documentation on these cars refers to them.
One is crank angle, under the dipstick.
One is cam angle, in the disty.

It sounds like you have fuel but no spark, since you smell fuel after cranking, and tried the spark test. In the future I don't recommend touching the spark plug while cranking, because if you had spark, I don't think the thousands of volts passing through you would help your Scleroderma.

Since the disty holds most of the ignition equipment, it's the most likely candidate. If you know how to do a code check, I'd try to do that first, or have somebody else do that for you. I'd rather know what's wrong with my car before throwing money at it.
Usually if it's ignition related, you're looking at disty on this car, or crank angle sensor, bad electrical connection somewhere, or ECU.

HEI might help but from what I can tell would be a bit difficult for you, so disty's probably fastest and easiest fix, if that's the problem as it sounds.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » January 22nd, 2007, 6:04 pm

I read where you saw no spark but was unclear whether you looked for spark at the wire where it plugs into the disty or by unplugging the wire from the sparkplug-end so forget about that for a sec. Your WOT accel scenario w/stuttering makes me wonder if your large ribbed air intake flex hose might have a hairline crack or two, esp on the underside out of sight between the ribs. That would sure explain why you could accelerate slowly but not at WOT cuz at WOT, the engine would be flexing in its mounts & flex hose would be flexing a crack way far open and putting the engine in a lean fuel-mix condition cuz of unmetered air getting sucked in through the crack(s).

A factory disty going bad in the V6 is a known prob but usually involves driving along at speed and then experiencing total engine cut out. Worth checking the intake hose anyway... costs nuttin to look at it and they do get brittle and cracked w/age and with being flexed around for air filter changes over the years... A tight 360 degree wrap with duct tape is a temp fix til hose replacement - if needed.

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 22nd, 2007, 6:20 pm

I appreciate all the replies and help. As far as touching the plug with my hands while it's cranking...I didn't do that. I moved it to a couple different positions to try and get a good view to see if there was spark but while still trying to keep the plug in contact with the disty. And yes I unpluged it at the disty not at the spark plug.It was just a quick test when it first happened and I had nothing to do a good test on hand. In an hour or so I'm going to pull my spark plugs and test them while plugged in on a ground.

My intake tubing is cracked in a few places...and it's been like that for some time it just hasn't caused any problems and I havn't had the time to install my CAI. I did wrap it in duct tape a few months back so I'll check for an dried out tape etc...but I'm almost certain that it not what caused the studdering in near WOT.

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 22nd, 2007, 8:30 pm

Pulled a spark plug to check spark and there is a spark...I dunno if it is too weak maybe but there was deff spark...and the plug had fuel on it from trying to crank it before we pulled it. My dad and I will put some new spark plugs and starter fluid in tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that goes.

PWRD_BY_HKS · Post by **PWRD_BY_HKS** » January 23rd, 2007, 11:41 am

dude just try it .....thats what happened to mine

Custom_V6_Limited_SE · January 23rd, 2007, 12:05 pm

I don't have much experience with cold starts because I'm in Florida, but, I would guess either plug wires or disty from personal experience.

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 23rd, 2007, 4:59 pm

well I replaced all the spark plugs and she started right up and ran fine for a test drive through all the gears. Thanks for the advice everyone. One thing that does worry me is there was some oil on one of the old spark plugs I pulled. The car does have 130k miles on it and it wasnt a HUGE amount of oil so I guess it's ok.

tehbrookzorz · Post by **tehbrookzorz** » January 24th, 2007, 1:07 am

Oil on the firing end of the plug or on the outside? If it's on the outside, not a huge deal. Just your valve cover grommets seeping.
If on the inside, well... I'll just hope its on the outside.

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » January 24th, 2007, 2:21 pm

it was on the outside from what I could tell. There was a little puddle of it down in the hole around where the spark plug goes in.

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Car will not start. Disty?

Car will not start. Disty?

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