Ok, here we go.

I noticed at lunch time at work that my car alternator was not charging by the gauge on the dash. Now I had checked it yesterday and the alternator was charging fine. I put the car on a battery charger that we had at work to make sure that the battery was topped of for the short drive home.

Now I go to start the car after work and nothing. It turns over with no problem, and I can hear the fuel pump work but will not fire at all. Could anything have hapenned when I charged the battery?

Need help

Oscar,
Akron, Ohio

 

Check grounds, emphasis on the plural. How old is the batt, what V is is reading?

 

new battery reading 12+ volts. The car has been on the road for about 2 weeks and has been running good.

 

I just wonder if it had to do with hooking up a batttery charger to it?

 

Did you remove the cables to the battery before charging it?

If your car is an '85 or newer, you may have zapped the LH if the cables were attached.

 

If the LH was BBQ-ed, would the fuel pump still run???

 

Sometimes.

 

I've jumped my S4 like 10 times already and the LH is not kaput.....

Maybe I am playing Russian (eerrr German) roulette saying that...

 

I had similar issues and it was a tired negative battery strap/cable. I also jumped the battery terminal and the car would start and run fine. Batter and alternator checked fine. Apparantly the weakened negative strap didn't carry enough amperage to start the car.

A RL lister was selling replacements for $28. I haven't had a no start issue since.

 

I wonder if you can do an LH swap with someone on this board that is in your area Plastex.


Can you verify that your car is getting spark?

 

The car is an 83' and I charged it with the cables hooked up. What else can I check? I am going to take a look at it when I get to work and need to know where to start.

 

I've charged my '83 with the cables connected many times (6amp charge) without issue.

First thing you need to do is determine that you have spark.

No spark, it may be:

1. Green wire from the distributor to the ignition brain
2. Coil
3. Ignition switch
4. Wiring (ballast resistors particularly)
5 14-pin connector
6. Timing belt (ask me how I know)

If you have spark then it has to be fuel delivery / injectors and associated circuitry. The L-jet brain does not appear to have a history of failure, so that would be about the last thing I would suspect.

My recent no start issue was a timing belt missing all of the teeth around the crank gear.

Section 28-11 of the WSM has some ignition system troubleshooting steps.

 

Some addt'l possibilities:

Perhaps you should clean and otherwise inspect the very small positive wire on the +battery terminal Its rumored to feed the brain.

Other possible areas to check ---
Injector relay (bypass w/ 3-way jumper)
Alarm

Also, check vacuum lines, esp. emmisions/carbon cansister, brake vac hoses, etc. No-start could be result of decay of vac. Intriguing part about these 25 year-old complex cars is that you can have multiple failures, sometimes related in series, sometimes unrelated in parallel, sometimes both types.

If vac is decayed, barn door of AFC won't swing open and allow enough air into system to detonate. Running a few weeks could have aggravated an already weak hose.

Jumping battery when there are corroded connections can create localized additional corrosion.

Time to get methodical with it.

 

+1 on the EFI relay!

 

I hate to hijack the thread...but I've been having problems with my car dying on me as well. It does it at random times. I thought the problem was my alternator so I replaced that, and my car ran fine for about 2 months. Then, just a few weeks ago it died on me out of nowhere. I jumped it and it started up and then a few minutes later died again. If my negative cable is faulty, would my problems occur more often than every few months?