Cyrus951

Okay, so my problems are as follows:
Car will not start, even when hot, sometimes. I can turn the car on and drive to Vons, but when I attempt to turn it on again, it won't start. This happens at about a 6-1 ration, it turns on 6 times, as appoused to the 1 time it will not. I did buy a new DME relay, and replaced it, still nothing.
The battery is 6 months old, and can hold a charge. When I try to turn it on, all it does is crank and crank. If i was to give the car a couple hours to sit, it would turn on then. Anybody got any ideas? Perhaps the alarm? Please explain in detail...
Thanks.

RajDatta

You might have a grounding issue. When the car gets hot, the ground wires build resisstance and once they cool down, they work correctly. I would look into the ground cable going from your battery terminal to the engine block.

Neward P

"When I try to turn it on, all it does is crank and crank".

Does ignition have spark?
Do you check the fuel pressure?.
Good luck.

87951

Reference sensors -again.

Cyrus951

Where are my reference sensors? What do I do to fix it? I remember my mech saying something about the reference senosors.

RajDatta

Welcome to the world of reference sensors. Seems like it has plagued a few cars recently including mine. They are 2 sensors, both connected to the engine harness right between the engine firewall and the intake manifold's back. You can try wiggling them and see if that works. Either your sensors could be gapped incorrectly or may have gone bad.
Best thing is to see if the tach moves when you crank, if it does, it getting signal from the sensor.

boostaholic

I second the reference sensor diagnosis. I had the same problem for months and nearly sold my car because of it.

Cyrus951

Okay, my tach only rises half a millimeter (what does your tach rise to when you attempt to turn it on, i never paid attention to this, mine doesn't even hit the first notch when its been cranking for at least 10 seconds.) when i attempt turning it on. Please guide me in more detail as to what the reference sensor looks like, and where it is planted. Thank you.

Cyrus951

Can anybody help??

Cyrus951

Bump, can anybody respond to this?
Thanks.

87951

Cyrus951 - in response to your desparate plea - the reference sensor plugs are usually the culprit. They are mounted on a metal bracket, one above the other, at the center rear of the engine. Next time it refuses to start, grab both ends of each wiring plug and vigorously wiggle them and then start it. You can try cleaning the connections but I had no success doing that and ended up soldering the wires together.

slevy951

My vote is for the DME. The solder joints in them get bad over the years. When it gets warm, the joints don't make a connection, hence, no running.

dmoffitt

if the tach doesn't move much, it's amost CERTAINLY the crank position / speed sensors - that's why you don't have spark / aren't starting...

sybelix

sounds like the very same problem I have;
I changed the fpr, fuel damper and dme-relay, no luck

next on my list -> sensors.

87951

Just an added note: if you do change the sensors, you are still plugging them into the old plug on the wiring harness, and in my experience, it is the plugs that are defective, not the sensor itself.