97 no start

can anyone please give me some direction and pointers to troubleshoot a no start condition, soon as it gets daylight around here? 1997 geo metro hatchback, 4 cylinder, auto trans. Wife started it up easily, then put in gear to back out, it just outright died. now no start. any help appreciated. I need to buy a manual for sure.

I assume you have checked all your fuses. First, check for spark at the plugs. It may be easier to see spark if it is dark out. If you have spark at the plugs, move back to the distributor, then the coil from there. If you have spark, you should see if the crank is turning the timing belt. To do this, remove the distributor and watch the rotor to see if it spins while you crank. If the timing belt is broken, it won't turn, however, if it has only slipped a tooth, it will turn. So if the rotor turns,pout the distributor cap back on. Get out your torx wrench and loosen off the bolts that hold the distributor. Advance the timing to see if that does the trick. If it does, then the timing belt has slipped, you will need to replace.

Without more info, it is hard to diagnose. When you try starting, do you have cranking, but no firing? Or does it kind of want to fire, but doesn't. How much juice in the battery? If it cranks ok, then you are probably ok there. Were there any weird signs before this happened? Strange noises, engine light on, or low power for the electrical accesories.

Good luck,

Jai

Carpenter-jai,Thanks. Battery good, cranks fine. spark from coil. Fuses good. Will check timing belt when can see better. and fuel pressure. You got me helped and started in the right direction. wife makes fun of me cause i LOVE my geo, i dont like driving her big honking explorer! i know that with the help of this forum, i will get her going. Just need some daylight here. Thanks buddy!!!

Your tagline proverb IS THE BEST i have ever read. How sad but true.

Your tagline proverb IS THE BEST i have ever read. How sad but true.

You like my tag-line, and your wife drives an Exploder? Hmmph, what a drastic difference. Metro being the most fuel efficient car built for every year of it's production, and Ford, a company with the honour of being the most inefficient manufacturer. I guess there are households with liberals and conservatives under the same roof, so it's not such a big stretch!

Jai

YES! carpenter-jai, we are very much opposites. My wife is about a three hundred year english arrival to the states. i am Irish and one quarter Native american of the sioux nation. man can we have a party! i am simple and direct by nature, just like my geo.

Jai
I don't think being a liberal or conservative has anything to do with the car you drive.I think liberals talk about pollution, energy conservation and hugging trees but don't practice it anymore than conservatives.I've seen more Kerry bumper stickers on SUV's than Metro's and similar cars.This is just my opinion based and what I see,I could be wrong.
Unbe

Unbe,

You have a very differant political climate in the States. There, you say liberal, here, we say socialist. We say Liberal, you say Democrat. We also have a green party. I don't know if you know who the American Ralph Nader is, but he had his name on the ballot for the last two elections as a green candidate. Democrats complained that he was splitting the vote, which allowed Bush to win. Well anyway, lot's of people in Canada are tree-huggers, and vote for all the parties, except Conservative. A real devoted environmentalist will take a bike, bus or walk, but won't drive, alas I'm not much of an environmentalist. And by the way, I think Kerry was just the smiling, waving, less obviously evil version of Bush, that would have done all the same bad sh*t, but without doing it for all to see. That's just my opinion though, I never met the guy, you know.

And as far as metro and similar car drivers go, maybe they're smart enough to see through all that bull.

Jai

Jai,
Thanks for the informative response,and can you believe we were able to talk politics without personally attacking each other,they said it couldn't be done.Well theres one for the record books.
Unbe

Unbe,

I'm glad that my comments didn't evoke any anger. I used to be very angry all the time, and was pretty much ready to snap. I took a step back and re-evaluated my situation, and decided that that course of action (being angry) wasn't serving me. As Canadians, we have huge access to information about what happens in your country without actually being directly involved (some of the time.) I think that gives us a unique perspective. I hope I'm not sounding smug, after all, all countries/people have their failings, Canadians included. I would like to discuss this further, but I get the feeling that this isn't the proper venue. Anybody can IM me if you would like to talk politics. :jump3:

Jai

A political discussion without yelling, threats, and idiocy? I'm impressed guys! Shows the maturity of some people on here are up to par sometimes. I'm glad to see people know the difference between opinions and battles. And as an American, I believe that Canada gets the best seats in the house to watch the destruction derby just south of em', without getting caught in the action too much :grinyes: My dollar doesn't go as far in Canada as it did when I was 19 :(. I remember with $100usd on my 19th birthday, I went to the Casino Windsor(didn't win a dime), 3 bars, and got a hotel room for the night.. And still had enough left to get breakfast and come home with $20. What I don't understand is the outrageous cost of cars in Canada. They cost nearly 30% more over there, and then you have to pay for inspections, and way more for insurance and gas! How do you guys afford to drive?

Afford to drive in Canada? I can't, but I need to for work, and Edmonton is huge, and since it was built after the advent of cars, we have to drive to get around, or spend hours on the bus everyday. My trips to work lately take 45 minutes, anf that includes highway driving. I would guess that I go about 60km, or 37 miles each way. Alberta is the Texas of Canada, and just raked in a 5.9 billion dollar budget surplus. The average wage is about $44, 000 per year. Consider that health care is free (for now) and the social allowances that low income earners are entitled to (such as wellfare, employment insurance, child tax benefits, day care subsidies, etc.) it's not that expensive.

Here are some figures for you to munch on. I'd like to know what you pay too. On second thought, I've just decided to make this a poll, so go take the poll please.

Jai

Free health care is awesome. I pay close to $200/month for mine. And $140/month for car insurance, income taxes are about 27% in my tax bracket, state taxes and social security(LOL, security!) is another 10%. Being in Wayne county(same one as detroit), they're losing a couple million per month. My insurance rates are going up because all the scum is moving out of Detroit(at a rate of 1,000 people per month) into the surrounding cities, and raising crime rates in the suburbs. Our wonderful state governor is finding more ways to screw people out of money with traffic tickets, lowering the legal alcohol level again(to .07 :screwy: ) That's not even getting a warm fuzzy feeling! On top of that, Michigan's economy is on a downward spiral.. With GM laying off 30,000 people, Ford closing several plants(another 20,000 people), and with Visteon in bankruptcy, there's another 25,000-50,000 people that could be jobless. All thanks to the UAW! It's always nice to have representation when a company tries to take advantage of you, but the UAW has screwed themselves with their greed. It's killed the quality of the vehicles, pride in work, and made everyone lazy. Look at the new Chevy Equinox. It's built in Canada(Cami Plant), without UAW, and with good employees.. It's the highest quality vehicle they build!(less than 1% warranty claims) And a mighty good looking one too. And then look at Honda and Toyota. Happy workers, huge profits, high quality cars.. which a lot are built here in the USA too(no UAW). Chrysler ousted the UAW too, and now their cars aren't piles of sh@# anymore :iceslolan . Funny how a group of people out to help people, are screwing them, and their communities twice as hard.
IMO, the world would be a better place without the UAW, and I bet American cars and high quality could be in the same sentence again. :2cents:

Yeah, unions are often not what they used to be. The first electrical workers union was started because men working on the high lines would sometimes get electricuted and their heart would defiblerate. These men were working alone, and so would ussually die. Unions came in and made it mandatory for highliners to work in pairs so that there would be somebody present to get the other guys heart going again. Nowadays, you get these fat union bureaucrats who are just the same as polititians, looking for ways to justify their jobs. Sad.

Allan, I'm glad to see that you have some perspective as to what is wrong with your gov'nt. Most people have a sense of something being wrong, and think that if their taxes were a little lower, everything would be fine.

It's funny, in the States, you're looking at Canada's health care model to save money. Here, our wonderful:screwy: politians are destroying health care to help their private insurance buddies make more money. The guy who will probably be Alberta's next premier (similar to governor) has been found to have ties to a private health insurance provider that stands to make a pile of money from health care reforms proposed by the party he belongs to. The worst thing about this is, most Albertan's will just roll over and take this up the A$$! This is what happens to society when it gets too wealthy. People start to get lazy at work, and do sh*t work cause they're not worried about their jobs, that is, if they even come in on Fridays and Monday mornings. Then they leave their cars idling for 20 minutes while they get a few groceries. And just for the record, it is not cold here right now. Nobody cares about anything it seems.

I'm 28, I'm supposed to be young, impulsive and carefree, but I can't. This whole thing is so messed up, and I'm looking at my the rest of my generation and thinking, man do I hope my kids generation figures it out and fix things, cause it ain't gonna be this one. :2cents: :2cents: :2cents:

Jai