I killed my daughter's car. Please help!!

[Osagecoon]

We washed the engine of our daughter's 93 camry 4 days ago. It started and ran for about 30 seconds to a minute then it died and hasn't started since. It is a 4 cylinder 2.2L. We have set it in the sun. We have gotten a new distributor cap and rotor and new plugs, were needed anyway. Dried everything we could get to with an air compressor. It seems to have spark but appears weak. The fuel pump works and the car has fuel. Engine turns fine just won't start. Don't know what else to try. Please help us. Thanks

[bdy0003]

How old is your battery? Did you try a jump start? When you were washing, did you cover the battery and alternator with plastic bags so they wouldn't get wet?

[fenixus]

measure the voltage on battery, perhaps alternator got fried and battery is now weak.it would also explain why car died after roughly 30 minutes once it initially started fine.

[BMR]

Maybe the coil is bad? It's a fairly common failure.

[LynchburgCSI]

A check for spark is fairly easy. Starting there would be my first guess.

[Osagecoon]

We didn't cover anything. Bad move in hindsight. There is spark, it just seems very weak. Have been continually keeping the battery charged up with the charger since we are doing alot of cranking of the engine without it starting. When the car started after washing it, it only ran for about 30 seconds before it died, that is why we think it must have something to do with the water. We thought about the coil but didn't know if that would be the culprit behind a weak spark. We had found some water in the igniter, so we have one of those on order, do you think that could be the problem? After we put that in, if it doesn't fix it, we will probably be looking for a new coil. If anyone has any other ideas, please give us your input, we really need to get this car back on the road. Thanks for the suggestions.

[BMR]

He said he did check spark, and that it seemed weak. that's why i'm thinkin' it's the coil.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by BMR

He said he did check spark, and that it seemed weak. that's why i'm thinkin' it's the coil.

makes sense considering the battery is constantly being charged externally (alternator doesn't matter at this point).

I think another stuff worth checking would be spark plug wires, they should have no more than 25K ohm resistance and they all should show similar values.

[Osagecoon]

Thanks BMR and fenixus for your suggestions. We'll check those items tomorrow and let you know what we find out.

[fenixus]

don't forget to check all fuses too, some might be seriously worn out already, and since all circuits (except for starter) draw power through battery and fuses then it may account for increased resistance and poor power output.

good luck!

[Osagecoon]

Sorry it's been so long to get back about this problem, my internet has been down since saturday morning. OK. We did some diagnostics on the ignitor and when we crank the engine, the tach jumps so that is supposed to mean it is okay. The coil measured 10.36 KOhms. From our information, it looks like it is within the good range of 9-11 KOhms. We also forgot to mention that we were getting a code of 24 on diagnostics. Does anyone know what that is telling us to check? Are we going to have to consider the ecu next? If so is that a DIY project, or should we take it to the shop?

[Osagecoon]

Oh, I forgot to mention that we did check the fuses and they all tested good. I'm not sure about the spark plug wires.

[csaxon]

Code 24 is Intake Air temperature Sensor Fault

[Osagecoon]

Intake air temperature sensor, okay, is there a range or is there some way to check if it is bad or do we have to just replace it. Also, is there some way to reset the ecu. In case we shorted something out when we washed it and it just needs to be reset.

[DarkSideMoon]

I would think removing the negative cable from the battery for like 5 minutes would do the trick. I don't know anything about the ECU though.