judd944

I have had a new battery in for a week now. the car ran fine last week and I have put on about 50 miles with the new battery. I washed the car, which is outside in the rain, and was going to put it in the garage. no start. the starter cranks the motor over fine but it never starts. any Ideas? before I started the car I was cleaning out the glove box and I noticed the spare DME relay I had. then I put it back in the box and back in the glove box. is this a sign? would a bad DME relay do this?

Macfreak007

it started before you washed the car? did you spray it under the hood?
if so take off the distributor cap and use some compressed air to dry all the plug wires and cap out.

Luis de Prat

I'll second the wet distributor cap and wire plugs.

Otherwise, my guess would be the speed reference sensor plug, at the back of the block is not making good contact. Try having someone wiggle the plug while starting the car. Has these exact symptoms when it goes bad.

HY M8NC

Bad DME relay would definately do that. If you turn the key to the "on" position, but don't start, you should hear the fuel pump running. If you don't, check the DME relay, then the fuses/etc related to fuel.

I think Luis is on to something withthe speed/reference sensor plugs on the back of the intake. I'd also check those-

judd944

thanks for the quick replies guys! the thing that is strange is that I washed the car by throwing a bucket of water on on it. I had no hose and I washed it while it was raining. when I was done I used the bucket to throw clean water on the car. perhaps some hit the distributor. I will swap the DME first and try that.

lleroyb

Believe it or not, you can hose out the distributor cap with WD40 and leave it wet. WD stands for Water Displacement. Used it four wheeling years ago, worked like a ....

Lou

Macfreak007

yeah, easy way to see if the sensors are working is to see if the tach bounces while trying to start, it should bounce a little, then if not use clarks garage test procedures with a voltometer. I would put some money on the sensors maybe now that Luis brought that up, theres plenty of space for the water to go down the back close to the windshield and hit them. Hope you figure it out.

judd944

I just went out to the car and tried to swap the relay to rule that out (DME) and the relay was longer than the origional. also the part # on it reads 993.615.227.00 I am going out on a limb here and saying that an 86 944 does not use the same relay as a 993.

judd944

hey I just did a check online and it shows on this website : http://members.optusnet.com.au/~dr_scott/tips.htm

where the 993 relay is the replacement part for the 944 relay.
just a heads up if you go to buy a DME relay.

judd944

I will let you know if putting this relay in allows my car to start.

judd944

new DME fixed it. although I still could not hear the fuel pump while inside the car.