No Spark with '89 Supra Turbo, please help.

[BLUEVTEC18]

Hello everyone.
My father-in-law has an automatic '89 Supra Turbo that doesn't start/run. As I understand, everything else about the vehicle is road worthy. We figured out there is no spark but we don't know why. I was thinking it might be the ignitor which is located on the driver's side near the battery. We haven't found any broken wires, bad relays, or blown fuses. Is there some way to check if the ignitor is receiving power during cranking? Or am I off base here? What else could cause a "no-fire" situation in this vehicle?

Any help in guiding me with troubleshooting the "no-fire" is gladly welcomed.

Thanks in advance,
BLUEVTEC18

[Jeeves]

Originally Posted by BLUEVTEC18

Hello everyone.
My father-in-law has an automatic '89 Supra Turbo that doesn't start/run. As I understand, everything else about the vehicle is road worthy. We figured out there is no spark but we don't know why. I was thinking it might be the ignitor which is located on the driver's side near the battery. We haven't found any broken wires, bad relays, or blown fuses. Is there some way to check if the ignitor is receiving power during cranking? Or am I off base here? What else could cause a "no-fire" situation in this vehicle?

Any help in guiding me with troubleshooting the "no-fire" is gladly welcomed.

Thanks in advance,
BLUEVTEC18

Easiest way to check for spark is to pull the #1 plug wire, plug a spark plug into it, ground it out against the chassis, and crank. If it starts sparking, you've got spark

More common on the turbo cars, the wires to the Cam Position Sensor get damaged. These will prevent the ECU from knowing what the timing is, without knowing the Timing, the car won't run. This is a sensor located on the passenger side of the engine, about as far forward on the head as it can be. It is behind the bracket that holds the power steering reservoir. I believe it has 4 wires.

Jiggle them, then try starting it again.


That's it, but on your engine, it'll have a black cover over it.

[BLUEVTEC18]

Thank you for your advice Jeeves. We already confirmed the no-spark just as you suggested. I was wondering about the CPS too, not just the ignitor. I will check out the CPS/wiring and see if that is the culprit. Is it possible the CPS is damaged internally? Are there cam engagement tabs that could have simply broken off?

BLUEVTEC18

[bgrieger]

The CPS is an inductive, gear driven pickup. Internally, the only failures are the wiring Jeeves pointed out, and the oil seals are known to rot out, but that clearly won't be your problem.

[toyotasupraspee]

i feel ur pain i have the exact problem with u on a 88turbo supra. no spark everything looks good tho. so help would help me as well on how to solve the problem.

[BLUEVTEC18]

Ok, so we found the problem finally! It was the fuel pump and related stuff. We dropped the tank and found the pick-up screen was about 98% plugged with a muddy varnish. The pump was also shot and so was the fuel filter. Apparently it seems if there isn't enough fuel pressure, the computer won't allow the engine to have spark. So we replaced all that fuel related stuff and washed all the crud/varnish from the tank. The Supra now starts/runs fine but it smokes pretty bad. This is going to lead to another thread so I will address that there. We believe there is an internal seal in the turbo that is leaking causing the smoke. So on to a replacement turbo?

Thanks for the input guys.

toyotasupraspee: Perhaps this may also be your problem?