my wife has a 94 1.8L automatic and she called me the other day and said her car stalled and it turns over but it won't start. i pulled it home and the next morning it started up fine. i took it for a ride for about 20 mins and it never stalled. when i got back home i shut it off, then try to restart it and it turned over but wouldn't start. seems like a fuel problem because it start for a second when you spray some ether in it. anyone have an idea what could be causing this?
For fuel to be delivered, you basically need two things.
1. Working fuel pump to supply fuel pressure
2. Injectors have to open and spray fuel
When the problem occurs and it does not start, (no ether sprayed or anything, just a warmed up car)
A) Does it cough or run for a second and then stalls? And later just cranks?
This would suggest that injectors do fire, so there is a little fuel sprayed from the residual pressure in the fuel lines.
B) It just cranks, no signs of starting.
Looks like the injectors are not firing, so no fuel at all is sprayed.
thanks for the reply ganda1f. answer to your question is B, no sign of starting. it just shuts off like someone hit a kill switch. then it will start again after an hour or so. i think i'm going to have to take it to a mechanic cause i don't have time to work on it. i will update when i find out.
thanks for the reply ganda1f. answer to your question is B, no sign of starting. it just shuts off like someone hit a kill switch. then it will start again after an hour or so. i think i'm going to have to take it to a mechanic cause i don't have time to work on it. i will update when i find out.
Be prepared to shell out some dough, maybe a lot, unfortunately.
Have you verified that you actually do have a good spark? Take out the plugs, connect the wire, touch the plug to the engine, have someone crank the engine, watch for spark. I thought that maybe you have a weak spark that can ignite the ether spray, but not gasoline.
Check the plugs right after it does not want to start and see if they are wet from fuel.
If you have an analog voltmeter, you could probe the connectors to the injectors and see if you get any signal at all to them. If the needle fluctuates, then there seems to be some sort of signal that should pulse the injectors. It may be too weak though to open them properly.
I have a similar problem. Mine is a 1994 Corolla DX 1.6L automatic. Yesterday the car died while driving down the road and afterwards, it would turn over but not start. A couple of hours later, I was able to get it started and drive it home. (about 2 miles) This morning the car started like normal. I let it idle for about 45 minutes and turned it off and restarted it. It did become more and more difficult to restart and would bog down and die if I pressed the gas pedal...strange. I have checked the plugs. They do have spark. I can only hear the fuel pump run after the engine is running. I wonder if the ignition coil is weak and not giving the plugs enough juice or if the fuel pump is weak and not supplying enough pressure. Any help and guidance is appreciated.
Check the plugs right after it does not want to start and see if they are wet from fuel.
You could install a fuel pressure gauge and check the fuel pump that way. You will need some sort of adaptor connection, cannot tell the correct fuel pressure off the top of my head, but it should be stated somewhere on the forum. Or perhaps somebody could chime in.
I changed the spark plugs and she is purring like a kitten again.
They were really fouled out. I guess what was confusing me was that I could not hear the fuel pump run when I first turned on the key. I did not start the car, but I could not hear the fuel pump pressurize the system. Actually I could hear the fuel pump run for about a second after I turned the key off. If I knew how to post pictures here, I would show you how badly fouled the spark plugs were.
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