chad millett

It has a 3.1 engine. It belongs to a friend. He just bought it. It has 205,ooo miles on it. It ran great for a week or so then....... yesterday he was at a friends house visiting and when he went to leave it wouldnt start. He called me to come help and when I got there it started and ran fine all the way home. Then this morning when he was getting ready to leave for work it wouldnt start again. Ive been trying it all day but still.... no start. The fuel pump is running. I can hear that no problem. It doesnt fire at all. There is some issue that drains the battery also if you leave it connected all night. I dont know if these problems are related or not.
Originally I was thinking crank shaft sensor, but in my experience, when these act up they usually star again after its cooled off.
Any ideas woulod be considered and appreciated!
Thank you.

DALLAS1982

have you tried replacing the ignition control module

chad millett

No, Im trying to get some ideas so trial and error fixing doesnt exceed the cost of the car. Most usually when the ignition module goes bad it only looses a couple of cylinders right? Is there a way to check the module without replacing it?

chad millett

I am going to try the crankshaft sensor first because it is cheaper. I will come back with the results. Im getting the sensor tonight. I need to brave the cold and the mountains of snow to change it and I know its not really an easy access. We sure are having and old fashioned Maine winter this year. I love it though.

DALLAS1982

Good

DALLAS1982

luck

jsgold

crank sesnor and/or module if it is not firing. My friend had an 89 that had both fail at the same time. if the module goes all the cylinders are dead. You can get it checked for free at Advance or NAPA. test is usually reliable though sometimes they can test good only to fail when hot.

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I used to be indecisive, now I am not so sure.

chad millett

It was the cranshaft sensor and luckly it came out. The old one looked fine. Ususlly they are cracked when they are bad so when I first saw it I thought it wasnt going to work but it started on the first try.

chad millett

Ok so it wasnt the crankshaft sensor. Its back to not starting again, agggrrrrr.......

Bearwulf

Ign. "off", pull 6 prong connector from ign. mod. Ign. "on", momentarily touch connector e on wire side with test light to 12v while observing cranking rpm.
Is rpm indicated? If yes, faulty 6way connection or ign. mod. If no, circuit open or shorted to ground, or faulty ecm.
Connector still off, ign.on, try starting engine. If it starts and idles, faulty ecm.

__________________
Bearwulf, the "howling Grizzly" of the north.
90-Eurosport
91-2 dr. euro body-220k got t-boned
91-4 dr. " "
93Eurosport
GRANDPARENTS RULE!!!!!!!!!

chad millett

Touch connector e? Which one is that? The car does not have an rpm gauge. Do I turn it over while the test light is touching connector e? You said "to 12 volts", do I connect the test light to 12 volts instead of ground? What would cause an open circuit?

chad millett

The problem is truely fixed this time. It was the ignition module.