car dieing

[daveid]

Just the other day my g/f said her car was hesitating and jolting and i didnt have a chance to check it out. well last night it ended up dying on the side of the road and wont start. Its turning over but wont kick over. When i popped the hood one spark plug was really lose so i put it back in and still no kick....All the electrical is new so i dont know what it could be....thanx for the help

[nialusa]

Broken fuel pump???????

[sierrap615]

year/make/model/mileage?

at this point it could be a million things. try a jump start. i am going to guess alternator, anyone agree?

[nialusa]

If it was his alternator the battery would go flat in no time and it wouldnt turn over at all, if its turning over but not firing up it`s either a fuel problem of no spark. Try disconnecting the fuel line from the injector/carb and see if fuel comes out when you turn the key, be careful and get something to catch the fuel in cause you dont want petrol everywhere. if it dosnt then I recon its yer fuel pump, if not, remove a spark plug from the engine, reconect it to the ignition lead, put the sparky end (technical term) on your engine block to ground it, then get someone to trun the key again and look to see if there is a spark. if there is no spark then it could be your dizzy cap/rotor arm if there is one, or your electronic ignition system.

[daveid]

thanx guys....im going out to work on it right now but i know that there is fuel becuase the spark plugs were fouled out because she hit the gas pedal and tried to keep starting it so ill let you know what happens after the new plugs and seeing if theres spark. I know its not the alternator or battery though..i just hope its not the control module. Thanx guys

[sierrap615]

depending on the electrical load with a dead alternator the car could be dead in a few minutes or the next day. even after the car dies there may still be enough power to turn the starter(seeing as the starter can work with as little as 9.6 volts but the engine is designed to run at 14 volts.

what i would do is check the battery/starting/charging system then go to the standard spark/fuel/air/compression testing.

Originally Posted by daveid

I know its not the alternator or battery though

how do you know? because its new? if someone tells me "it can't be that part i just replaced it last week!" thats the first place i look.



maybe the part wasn't installed right. - cables loose?
maybe the wrong part was installed. - just because it looks right doesn't mean it is.
maybe the new part was bad out of the box - very small chance
maybe another system is bad causing this system to fail - oil leak above alternator?
maybe another part is bad and it looks like a different part is bad - slipping belt or bad battery cables?

[sierrap615]

Originally Posted by sierrap615

year/make/model/mileage?

???