no start 95 cavalier 2.2

[jeffyweasel]

hi i got a fantastic problem and lookin for ideas. here goes. i got a 95 cav with a 2.2 that wont start. a while back we went thru a real bad cold spell for a couple weeks. the car started hard almost like it wanted 2 flood out. after a week of this, it finally did. put in some new plugs, problem solved. a couple weeks later i was driving it home from work and it started to act a little funny with the occasional misfire, but nothing really bad. next morning it started like it was flooding out again but the temp was in the twenties, not subzero like before. let it warm up and drove a few blocks and the misfiring intensified. swung over to autozone to have it hooked up to the scanner 2 see what set the light off. couldnt hook it up do to some kind of obd1/obd2 bull crap. car died there and neverstarted again. had it towed to friends shop. like an idiot i took the battery out for one of my other cars and forgot all about the check engine light, so i never got to test it on the scanner. replaced plugs and a bad wire. still tried to start like it was flooded and never could get it to run again. couple weeks went by before i could look at it again. this time it started for a couple seconds ran like crap and shut off. no start again. spark is good. fuel pressure tested out at 58 lbs. replaced fuel filter just to make sure there were no restrictions. seems to be a fuel starvation issue from what i can tell. cranked the hell out of it for a good cpl mins and pulled 2 plugs and they were dry. i was told something about a temp sensor possibly screwing with the computer or a possible injector problem. if it had a bad injector wouldnt it still start on 3 cylinders? any suggestions would b great. thanks

[manicmechanix]

58 psi fuel pressure seems high. Anyway, when it won't start check for spark. You really need to stick a scanner on this car and see what your ECT, IAT, TPS sensor etc. say, which isn't easy since this car is the weird obd1.5. I think newer scanner like Equus even the cheap $100 ones are now CAN protocol and should be able to read OBD1 through that '95's obd2 diagnostic connector, so it seems like they should read trouble codes with their scanner nowadays, but I'm not really sure. My guess is you're either not getting spark or the injectors are not being cycled due to a Crankshaft postion sensor.

[J-Ri]

That is high for fuel pressure... check the regulator and return line.

Originally Posted by jeffyweasel

i was told something about a temp sensor possibly screwing with the computer or a possible injector problem. if it had a bad injector wouldnt it still start on 3 cylinders? any suggestions would b great. thanks

as was said, ECT sensor is a very good possibility, if it's reading lower than actual the engine will be way to rich or flood, higher than actual will not give enough gas to start.

Most likely not an injector problem... but it's possible. I don't remember what year they switched to sequential fuel injection, but if yours all fire at once, one shorted could take them all out. Check them all with an ohmmeter. Don't know the spec offhand, but "all the same" (as long as they're not all 0) usually gets you there. If the problem was a plugged or leaking injector, yes, the engine would probably start and run on 3 cylinders. Check injector pulse with a noid light to make sure they're firing. Lacking that, you could also connect a fuel pressure gauge and remove the power connector for the fuel pump and attempt to start the engine. If the fuel pressure drops, at least one is firing so it would be a safe bet that all are. DO NOT pull the fuel pump fuse or relay (have to disconnect at the tank), as the injectors are powered through the fuel pump fuse/relay.