Crankee, no sparkee

[bokonon]

hey folks.

I am trying to get a '95 mx-3 with the 1.6 DOHC to run again. Here's the situation.

I took the car in for a transmission rebuild and a new oil pan seal. Ended up also replacing engine mounts and the air flow sensor. But when I got the car home it still had no power and was getting lousy mileage, so I decided to try to strip the trouble codes to see if anything would show up. The check engine light wouldn't come on at all, even on initially turning the key. Aha, thought I, bad bulb. So I pulled out the instrument cluster to replace it, which required removing the steering wheel, air bag, and much of the dash. Unfortunately the bulb was fine, so I have no idea why the light doesn't work. Anyway I put it all back together, and it would no longer start. It cranks, but no spark. There is voltage to the distributor. The coil resistances were about 1000 and 15000 ohms, so I figured maybe I somehow blew the coil and got a junkyard distributor to swap in. It shows the same resistances though, so maybe there is a typo in my shop manual where it says the resistances should be ohms not kilohms, or maybe it's blown too in the same way? I dunno. I'm stumped. Still won't start. Any ideas on how to attack this? I don't want to go buying new parts and swapping em in blindly if I can avoid it.

[Daninski]

First, physically check that the VAF plug is completely plugged in. Next you can try disconnecting the ground from the battery , depress the brake pedal for 1/2 minute then reconnect the neg of the battery and try it again (do this if your getting a click on the start but no rollover). Is there a possibility your cat is plugged? Finally I'd check the crank sensor. Thats where it all starts.

[bluechro]

I don't know what the hell you were doing, but you can get the instrument cluster out with like 6 screws... You don't have to touch any of the rest of the dash.

[Daninski]

Hey don't dis the Dude, you know the Mancode. Don't read the instructions untill you've hoplessly screwed the job up. Thank you.

[SuperK]

The JE50 was in the 1.8L V6.

Do you still have your old air flow sensor? Try plugging the old one back in.

Are you getting fuel pressure?

[Daninski]

Opps, my bad.

[bokonon]

I don't have the old air flow sensor. I didn't mess with it between the car running and the car not running, but I'll check the connection. I'm thinking I need to check the ignition switch, too.

Oh, and I'd be very interested in this procedure for getting the instrument cluster out without removing anything else. Can you explain? Cuz there sure was a lot of other stuff covering up those screws, and getting in the way of pulling the cluster out, even if i had had a sonic screwdriver to get the screws out with no access to the heads. The publisher of my repair manual would like to hear from you as well so they could update their unnecessarily complex instructions.

[SuperK]

It also could be an ecu. I know some places can test the ECU to see if it's faulty or not.

If the disty is good and you're getting fuel pressure (fuel pump is good, right?)
and it's cranking but not starting... it could be the ecu.

If yours is a manual, I can find an ecu from the junkyards locally if that's the route you want to take.

[bokonon]

It's an auto trans. Not by my choice, this is the teenager's car

[bokonon]

Can someone verify the primary and secondary coil resistances for me on a known good disty? I mean with a meter, not by looking up the value in a book, the idea is to find out if the Haynes manual is screwy. I was checking across the outside pins on the 3-wire connector, and between the one closest to the front of the car and the coil tower terminal.

[shameem]

Th 95 mx3 has some differences in the disty wiring - dont go by the haynes manual - go by the online manual here - http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also the coil is internal to the disty and there is no coil tower on the disty - only spark plug outputs.

If your CEL is not turning on when you turn the key on - aside from bulb failure - your ECU is gone or not getting power. First check all the fuses - especially engine fuse and injector fuse. Second verify that ECU is getting power at the connectors.

[bokonon]

There is a coil tower on the disty, you just have to take off the cap to get at it.

Also, the CEL was not coming on even before the car quit running - that's why I took all that stuff apart in the first place. I suppose there could be some sort of progressive ECU failure going on though.

[bokonon]

hah, good call shameem...i had visually checked the fuses but i went and rechecked them with a meter, and the injector fuse was the culprit. oddly, the CEL works now too, which doesn't make much sense to me but i'm not complaining.