problem with car - won't start

[scrowler]

hi,

i bet this sounds really lame, but i'm just looking for a bit of advice. i have an 87 ford laser with a 1.6L efi engine in it, and it won't start.

i've recharged the battery (fine) and checked all the spark plugs (no spark, cleaned them up anyway) and proceeded to check the distributor.

at this stage, i'm just curious as to what else could be wrong with it. i'm going to go get some new spark plugs, but could it be a problem with the fuel supply or pressure?

any ideas appreciated. thanks,
robbie

[2.2 Straight six]

could be the coil.

if it's not sending enough voltage to the plugs you won't get a decent spark.

[gouldie1903]

just got an idea to check the coil, it should work. take the wire comming off the coil and put a spark plug in the other end then check for the spark there.


if that's not it check the computer for trouble codes, if there is one that should lead you to the problem.


it could be one of many things. this happend to my friend's subaru when he fried the computer. hopefully that isnt it.

[scrowler]

what's a coil? the battery was near flat, making it possible that there wouldn't be enough power to create a spark anyway, i'm recharging it now.

with the ecu, first thing is where is it usually located? and secondly, how can i check it to make sure its all ok? i'm assuming since its essentially just a little computer, i could hook it up to my pc somehow and run some diagnostics on it.

thanks,
robbie

[scrowler]

ok, i've located the ecu (behind/under the stereo unit) and taken it out with the intention of finding a serial port that i could connect to my pc. this ecu is obviously 20 years old now and no connectors other than the 3 big plugs that connected all the sensors and power into it.

i think my only bet for it is to hope there's nothing wrong with it, because from what i can see, there's no way to diagnose a problem in it at this stage. are there reprogrammable ecu modules that i can replace it with and reflash to maintain a similar configuration to what this ecu currently has in it, that will still be compatible with the model (87 ford laser)?

i'm charging the battery up to full and will try the sparks again tomorrow.

as you may or may not have noticed, i'm new to all this. just to clarify, here's what i understand is happening at this stage:

- the ignition is turned, which activates a relay which sends power to the start motor
- starter motor turns the timing belt connected to the flywheel(?) which turns the crankshaft and drives the pistons (at about 200rpm)
- fuel pump is engaged and is delivering fuel into the engine block, through the injectors into the pistons ready for the spark
- power is also sent from the battery through the distributor, through the coils(?) to each of the spark plugs, which generate a spark and start the engine running

can somebody confirm what i've just written as accurate or not? from here, i can see that the electric circuits work (i have horn =D [to wake up the neighbours with]) which should be allowing fuel through the pump into the pistons (how can i test the fuel pump?) and turns the starter motor (i can see it turn). the flywheel also turns, so i can assume the crank shaft is turning also, which in turn means the pistons are moving. from here i can only assume that the reason it isn't starting is because the spark plugs aren't creating the spark needed to start the engine.

am i on track?

thank you very much for your time so far,
robbie

[gouldie1903]

well the starter turns the flywheel which is between the engine and transmission.

the ignition system works by power going to the coil and through induction (correct me if i'm wrong) builds up the energy, much like a capacitor, to send the energy to the distributor all at once. the distributer then sends the power to the cylinder that will be fired.

you said it was a 4 cylinder so there will be 5 wires coming off the distributor one for the coil 4 for the spark plugs.

to run diagnostics you need a little handheld computer, you can get them at autozone, and plug that into the diagnostics port. i'm not sure where it will be on you car but the ones i've seen have all been under the dash on the driver side.


good luck with the problem and i hope this helps. also howstuffworks.com is a good site if you need to go through the different systems or just learn more about how they work.


-chris

[scrowler]

cheers, i understand a bit more now after reading a couple of their articles. now i know what the coil is, i'll check it in a bit to make sure its producing a current. the distributor cap looks pretty new so i'd be sceptical to think there would be a problem there, but i'll check it too.

-edit- ok, i'm getting a spark now, when i turn the ignition to "on" without starting, i can hear the fuel pump turning on and off. car still doesn't start.

any ideas?

-edit- i've been checking things that the manual suggested. i realised that since the spark plugs need to fire in a specific order, that my order (random) would be wrong and could be a reason for it not starting. i spent ages looking for the firing order in the manual before seeing it on the distributor cap. i put them in the new order (assuming 1 to 4 is left to right in the block). still no joy.

[scrowler]

faulty fuel pump was found to be the culprit