quinnfiske

I went through a no start odyssey once and it turned out to be the DME. The transistor that fires the coil impulses failed. Cracks in solder joints are fairly common. I found it by hooking up an old fashioned timing light to one of the plugs. I would start the engine and watch as the plugs stopped firing.

2BWise

If the TPS or AFM are faulty it can cause a rich/lean situation that could keep the car from starting.

97xray

Quinnfiske, I think the coil is operating properly; the plugs are sparking appropriately. Is this simple minded assessment flawed?

quinnfiske

The DME has a transistor that sends a signal to the coil. This is what determines ignition timing. Older cars had breaker point to do this. In my case the signal was intermittant so the engine would cut out from time to time. It got worse until it would no longer run at all. I spent hours doing all the things that you are and this was my last resort.

If you know someone else who has a car like yours you can swap out the DME's. Must be the same model though, S2's, 951 etc all have slightly different units. I had mine fixed at www.systemsc.com.
They are in Calif and did a great job for about $250.

AKCJ

I may have missed this but are you sure your fuel is good? I once had water in the fuel (I think just from condensation) & couldn't find anything wrong with the car because there wasn't anything wrong with the car.

Will it fire with starter fluid? Perhaps put in some red heet.

97xray

IT STARTED!

But I'm not sure why! I want to give credit to Chuck at Paragon for pointing me to air supply issues. I remembered learning to hold the choke on small engines to start them after long periods of inactivity. I'm not sure how that led to me opening the door on the AFM, but it did, and more importantly, temporarily propping open the door on the AFM started the engine.

To all the experts with opinions: Why did that work?

I let it idle up to temp. since I haven't done so in 9/10 months. I have the day off, so I can wait for the motor to cool back down and try again, but hot starts (2) worked with no additional assistance.

Thanks to all who helped and again, thanks to Chuck at Paragon!

quinnfiske

Woo Hoo! Good work. I am going to remember the AFM barn door trick. You made the mixture richer by doing that. Maybe that is what stale gas needed to fire. Maybe your DME temp sensor is not working (it makes a richer mixture in a cold engine). I just replaced mine for $18.

97xray

Thanks, quinnfiske.
I was going to ask about the temp sensor, but Clark's Garage has a nice piece on it - of course.

Where'd you buy the temp sensor for $18; I don't see it at Paragon Products?

quinnfiske

Pelican has them for $21.50, other places might be cheaper. They are called "DME temperature sensor II". Don't confuse it with the sensor for the temp guage. I got mine as part of a belt-change proceedure, so maybe I got a discount on it.

blown 944

Personally I think it was a coincedence.

I bet that fooling withthe injectors was what actually worked.

In my experiences tapping onthe injectors on a car that has sat is the first thing I do. It has started more cars than I car to say that were a no start under similiar circumstances.

Good job what ever it was

Sid