Mark-87-951

I was having trouble starting the car for awhile. It would catch, then stumble and die and got to the point of taking more than 1/2 dozen attempts before starting. The rpm gauge didnt move much and I had recently been pulling the DME relay at night because the car had been broken into. So I figured a new relay was in teh works. Well, got it and no go. All it did was turn, the rpm gauge now started up immediately but it wouldnt catch at all and now hardly turns over.

Did I just drain the battery too much to crank and provide spark or is it something else?

rberry951

It is possible that in taking the DME relay out and plugging it in that you pushed the contacts in the relay/fuse panel down and the relay is not making contact anymore. And if said contact were loose before, might explain the former issue as well.

Regards,
Russell

ian kam

I had a injector wire that went bad causing it not to start lots of fuel no spark. Wiggle them and move the rubber boots around it may get it running.

Mark-87-951

I forgot about my injector wires. I had that problem before and fixed them as best I could at the time. I'll check again. How can I check the contacts? Is it as simple as unscrewing the plastic pins and pulling the entire panel up and out?

rberry951

Actually you can take out the DME relay and just look at them first, if one or more are at different depths, then they may not be making good contact. If not, then yes the whole panel lifts up out of the metal casing. And lots of sharp edges, and the harness is tight, don't cut yourself if you have to go in there.

Regards,
Russell

Mark-87-951

Turned out my battery was worn down. I got a jump start last friday and had it recharged on the weekend and it was find until yesterday. Gave me a bit a of trouble starting up once at work but this morning I'm back to not starting at all and the rpm gauge not moving. grrrrrrrrr

Mark-87-951

Ok, pulled up the fuse panel, but very hard to see the dme connector, let alone turn it over enough to get a clear look at the bottom. So far it looks fine. I checked the reference sensor wires as they seemed very "flexy" at the dme connector side. Wires appear to be connected, though one has several strands broke loose. The wires on the sensor side look fine from the outside, though one is bent right at the connector, it still feels solid.

Further suggestions?

Thanks

Mark-87-951

update. I got a good look at the dme relay connections from the top. I can see that they're not pushed down. I wiggled the ref. sensor wires a few times and the car started but not well enough to keep running. I'm thinking it's time to order the ref. sensor harness from lindsey. What do you guys think? I checked the fuel injector wires, they were ok, though I need to replace that eventually as well.

rberry951

Are you sure your battery isn't kaput? If you can jump it again and it starts, I would suggest a new battery. If it isn't properly charging while driving check your grounds. Does your alternator make a whining sound or do you get feedback through your speakers?

Russell

Mark-87-951

no speakers connected right now, due to a break in. I had the battery recharged and that got it running and then just a day or so ago, it gave me some trouble starting but eventually started. Then woudnt start this morning. My battery gauge when I'm driving is at the midway point.

Mark-87-951

Ok, I got and new DME relay and the lindsey wire sensor harness in, had to get a new battery as well. The first few tries and it didnt start or did but just stumbled and died. The next 2 days were fine, started right up. This morning back to no starting. I'm pretty sure I can hear the fuel pump start up when I turn the key but no movement on the tach.

So what's wrong now?

Ski

Just a suggestion, check your fuel pump connections and ground, pretty easy to do at the back of the car. There have been a couple of threads this year with bad fuel pump ground and corrosion in the connector - they had similar situations to you car.

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge on the car? Jump pins 30 and 87b on the fuel pump relay socket to check the fuel pump.

Dr. Dynamics

Mark,

Even though I experience myself bad VR sensor connectors, in order to eliminate the possibility of a bad DME relay, build a three-way jumper cable in order to bypass the DME relay. This is to jumper the 30, 87 and 87b connections on the relay conector. I always have this small cable in the car just in case.

Another thing to get out of the way is to bypass the stock alarm unit. Go to Clarks Garage...there's a good how to on this.

This way you may eliminate a couple of variables...
Good Luck...

BTW Did you try tapping the DME itself. Sometimes there are bad weld spots that may cause a headache.

Mark-87-951

I'll check the fuel pump on the weekend and try bypassing the alarm module if that isnt the issue. It wouldnt surprise me if the alarm was the problem as it never really worked before. It would go off, but all it would do is click, it didnt set off the horn. I dont use it anymore even as a kill switch because I broke the key off inside the lock one winter.

I wiggled the new DME relay and I can see the contacts havent been pushed down.

35thSLP

I had this problem and it ended up being my ref sensors. after replacing the sensors I still had problems. I then took the sensors out of the bracket at the back of the intake manifold. plugged them in without the bracket and viola, no more problems.