Komradekozik

Had starting problems yesterdays thought maybe it was the fuel pump so i put a couple gallons of gas in it(was around 1/4 tank) and its starts right up i go to the gas station and i fill up and it wont start again... 15 minutes goes by and it mysteriously starts. About an hour later havent turned the caroff yet i stop on the side of the road to shut my hood and when i get back in it stalls wont start back up WTF. it starts up another 10 minutes i get it home and turn it off and from there it wont start up at all. tap and shook the fuel pump diagnosed the Coil, checked for spark(none at the plugs) just cranks and cranks. Dad thinks its the ECU. any theorys?

jstand22

start by replacing the DME relay; that could very well be the problem, and its only 20 bucks (but you should be carrying around a spare anyways)

Komradekozik

my dme relay is only 4-5 monthes old could it burn out so fast

jstand22

yes it is possible, some people have replaced more than 3 a year (but that is more uncommon)

hauser

I had a the same problem in my 94 after i had changed the dme and it turned out that the female connections in the panel had pushed out the back and were barely touching the pins on the relay,
if you push on the relay and it starts it could be the problem. It did exactly as you described but in my case it was almost the last place i checked.

Good luck

one

It's either the timing sensor or the crank sensor. Both are located on top of the bellhousing just behind the engine. Take a long metal object and tap on the top of them with a little bit of force. (don't beat them) They'll appear to be round (if I remember correctly).

They have a magnet inside of them and over time the magnet refuses to drop back down like it should. This is an indicator of wear and you should consider replacing the faulty part soon. This is why you do not have spark at the coils.

If it fails to start again, just go outside and locate them (from the drivers side) and give them a few whelps and the car should start up fine. It might even fix the problem for a good while. When mine started going bad I whacked them and it did not give me problems again for a year. Seems the magnets get randomly stuck with age.

quinnfiske

+1 on the reference and speed sensors. I had trouble with mine and I found I could wiggle the connectors and get the car to start. I prefer gentle wiggling to bashing them. I also had a bad DME. They develop cracks in solder joints over time and mine would'nt send a spark impulse to the coil. Took me along time to find it.

one

Bad connections aren't the same as stuck magnets, they must be tapped back down. Your gentle wiggling would not have started the ca if it had not been for a different problem.

quinnfiske

You are right. If the sensor itself fails that is not the same as an intermittant connection. In my case the connection was the problem.

Komradekozik

Can DME relays be tested before i buy a new one..

quinnfiske

Clark's Garage (link below) has a proceedure for making a jumper to replace the DME relay. I tried it and it worked for me.


http://www.clarks-garage.com/

Go to "Garage Shop Manual", then "DME Relay" in the alphabetical list.