88 Camry cranks but won't start

[getza1]

My girlfriend was driving her 88 camry and she drove home from work which is about 12 miles away, then came home and let the car sit about 20 minutes and then started it up and then drove about a block and stopped at a stop light and then she said it just chugged when she pressed on the accelerator and then she pulled over to the side of the road and it died.

Now it will just crank over but will not start. I have jumpered the B+ and FP terminals and the fuel pump is working. I have replaced the ignition coil in the distributor and also made sure the rotor points to the #1 plug spot so I don't think the belt is bad. I also replaced the main EFI relay. Also undid the cold start injector and cranked it over and fuel was spraying out of that so I'm pretty sure fuel is making it to the fuel rail.

There was a little bit of oil in the distributor cap when I took it off, which people say indicates a bad O ring for the distributor? Is the O ring the gasket that goes around the cap?

I'm out of ideas on what to check next. I have read a bunch of posts and some of the things I can think of from reading those posts might be Timing belt slipped throwing the timing off. The ignitor is bad. The IAC and TPS which I don't know what those are.

Can someone explain to me how to try and start the car using a starter fluid so that way I can determine if it is either fuel or spark related. Any ideas on other things to check would be great.

I'm very limited in my mechanic knowledge so sorry if what I posted doesn't sound quite correct.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Mike Gerber]

"Can someone explain to me how to try and start the car using a starter fluid so that way I can determine if it is either fuel or spark related. Any ideas on other things to check would be great."

Take off the big rubber tube leading to the throttle body. Give a good spray of the fluid (I actually prefer some carb cleaner as it is less volatile) inside there and then reattach the big tube. Now try starting the car. If it sputters or starts for a few seconds, where it didn't before, you have identified fuel delivery as your problem.

You really haven't checked the timing belt. Remove the distributor cap and have someone try to start the engine while you observe the rotor. If the rotor turns, the timing belt is at least intact. If it doesn't turn, you have a broken timing belt.

Mike

[getza1]

Thanks Mike,
I will give that a try. I will also take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor turns.

Would having a little bit of oil in the distributor cap cause it to not start? I also ran the test to check the ignitor by checking the ohms on the ignition coil and secondary coil? and it was getting 12 so I think the ignitor is good but I'm not really sure.

Is there anything else you would suggest that I should test or look at. I don't really want to buy any parts until I know what the issue is.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Doctor J]

You did all the stuff I normally will do to check for non-starting condition
More tests:
Verify that you have a good spark
the spark tester that clips to the metal (or the old spark plug with wide gap can tell you if the spark is good (it shold jump at least 3/16 inch gap
make sure that the check engine light is on and try to read the code (s)
post them here
attempt to start the engine with FP bridged to the b+
Remove 3 inch rubber plug from the upper timing belt cover to check the cam timing
Oil in distributor can cause misfiring; the bad rotor can cause the engine to die.
best of luck

[getza1]

So worked on the car a bit this weekend and now I'm not getting any spark. Sprayed starting fluid into the throttle body and it didn't try to start. Checked to see if I was getting a spark to the plug and I'm not getting anything.

I replaced the ignitor with one from the junk yard and both are showing around 12 volts when checking the positive of the ignition coil and a ground. I have also replaced the ignition coil. Checked the rotor, cap and plugs and everything looks good. Cleaned the small amount of oil out of the cap and that didn't help. I also cranked the engine with the cap removed and the rotor spins so the timing belt is ok.

I didn't get a chance to check the ignition timing though, but I should at least get a spark.

Her car does have a bad ground or something somewhere that was causing her battery to die, so I put a deadener on the negative lead so we could keep it from dying while it was sitting parked at night.


Does anyone have any ideas on what to check next? I'm running out of ideas.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Doctor J]

Have you checked the codes and is your check engine light cames on with ignition in "ON" position???
If it is not check the EFI fuse and main relay ground point (under left headlight)
without checking that first you can be looking for that probelm for long time

[getza1]

I forgot to post some things. Yeah I checked and the check engine light comes on when in the "ON" position.

I had a question though about checking the codes. So on her car I have a deadener on the negative post for the battery and we have turned it on and off a few times. If I check the codes will they still be valid codes or will that have reset them?

Thanks,

Aaron

[Doctor J]

This will erase codes (as it is similar to battery removal)
but if "hard faults" are present (igniter or p/u coil faults), it will set these codes during the cranking, so crank the engine and try to read them.
Have you tried to swap thenew rotor in distributor
(I spent 2 days figuring that out in my car!!)

[getza1]

Thanks,
I will check the codes and then post them here. I have not swapped out the rotor. I replaced the cap, plugs and rotor back in Jan. The rotor looks to be in good condition. Do you think it could have gone bad in that time?

Thanks,

Aaron

[Doctor J]

On my car it died without warning. I shut the engine off and came back in 10 minutes to start the car but it was dead (just spinning) the timing light however was flashing (this confused me!) and the spark was very weak the rotor had internal arching to the distributor shaft from its metal arm.
In my friend's case there were no spark AND the timing light was "dead". Quick glance on instrument panel revealed no check engine light and problem was the blown EFI fuse.
Have you checked the distributor's pick-up coil resistance?You may already know that but just in case,The TCCS ignition system works as folows (boring theory)the pick-up coils are generating signal (aka cam sensor): this signal goes to the engine comp(this is why I asked about Check engine light) from computer the signal goes to the ingiter, which grounds the tach or (-) terminal of ignition coil wht-blue wire, switching current flow on and off in primary this causes secondary to produce high voltage that makes spark If you have tachometer with 0 to 1000 rpm scale, attach it to the tach terminal and crank the engine if it shows cranking speed the low voltage circuit is ok.