Ethan

Ok here is the scoop, my S2 wouldn't start today. I was in the middle of running some errands, and it died in the grocery store parking lot. I get in the car after shopping and the starter turns and sounds fine and normal. It started and died within 2 seconds in the parking spot. It just sounded like the engine wasn't getting any spark or gas and died. So, I pulled the DME- everything is clean. Next I put a new 15A fuse in the fuel pump sender spot. Try to start it, and it fired right up. I figured I had just blown a fuse. So I went home to wash it, then attempt to start it again after washing it and the same thing happened. But nowI changed the same fuse that I changed before and nothing helped. The starter and battery seem to be doing their job just fine. Any ideas on what teh problem could be?
BTW- Last Friday I put in a remanufactered starter (thanks again Doug), even though there didn't seem to be any problem with the starter in this situation, could there be something wrong with it?
TIA
-Ethan

tazman

You pulled the DME or the DME relay?

It sounds like it could be your DME relay. If you do a search you can read how to do jumpers to find out if that is your problem.

MichelleJD

Did you wash the engine? Could it be you fixed the first problem then got the distributor wet?

Ethan

I pulled the DME relay, it appears to be totally clean. As for the engine, it is completely dry. The car also has plenty of gas in it.
-E

Peckster

What does being clean have to do with whether it works? I'll bet dirty ones work.

tazman

Yeah its not the contacts on the outside that usually fail its the contacts on the inside that wear out.

seb928s

It's probably the DME relay. Pull it out drop it on the ground few times and put it back in if it works then it's the relay. Also you can just open it up and take a look at it. I bet when you removed the relay to see if it was clean on the outside you moved something around inside of it and then it had a contact once again. Also you can pick up a DME relay for around 21$ and it's a good spare to carry around.

Ethan

Thanks guys, I am going to order a new relay in hopes that it solves my problem.
-Ethan

seb928s

Yea it should as it sounds like the relay is going bad it would do this. Also if not it's good to carry one around because you never know when they will fail. Let us know when you get the new one in if it helped.

Ethan

Found one for $24, should be here by Wednesday....got a couple other little parts while I was at it too.

Kevin Baker

I keep a rotating inventory of 3. Two in the glove box and the one that is installed.

Rally Guy

Also - check the Ignition Module - near the driver's side headlight. These are specific to the S and S2 cars and often fail.

They produce exactly the symptoms you descibe - strong cranking with no spark.

Then - if DME realy - DME - IM and Fuel Pump all work - you're on to coil - dist cap - Fuel Pressure reg etc.

If ALL those fail to get it going - I've read interesting tales of the alarm module causing curious no-start issues.

Let us know what it turns out to be!

RK

Ethan

Update,

I was able to start it last night after using seb928s trick: shaking the DME relay a little bit. So I think that is the problem. I can tell you for sure once I get the new one tomorrow. I almost got the ignition switch module also, because they were inexpensive too, but I didn't.
RK- did you ever get the fan switch relay I sent to you? Was that the problem?

Thanks again for your help everybody.

-Ethan

seb928s

Ethan

Sometimes you have to drop some parts to make it work Makes me 99% sure it's the DME relay if not then the 1% goes to the connection were the DME really goes under it you can see if you get in the driver side and look up where the relay box is you see all the wires going to it could be loose or broken either way it's a cheap fix. Good luck

Danno

So ah.. what if you have spark, like all four plugs sitting on the intake-manifold fire back and forth in the right order, AND you have fuel? Like removing the injector fail and aiming the injectors sideways results in fuel spraying across the garage, yet the car [i]STILL[/i ] won't start, eh?