jackkthemackk

Well, it's been a bad day for me. Got in the new DME relay in hope of that fixing it. Rode my motorcycle to my parents to go fix it & some ******* blindly pulled out in front of me causing me to put the bike down at 60mph & total it. Some how managed to walk away from it without a scratch thanks to 7 years of riding experience. Finally ending up getting to my parents, put in the new DME relay, & nothing. Boost gauge won't move when I turn the key & no spark.

Humboldtgrin

Yep that's a ****ty ****ty day! Sorry for your luck! And stop just throwing parts at it! I told you test out the sensors and voltage to your computer or you will waste sooooo much $ it's not Even funny! Like Now!

Tom M'Guinn

Yikes, so sorry. That will put things in perspective quickly! Glad you came out of it ok, that's what matters. I'd manually check for voltage at the DME. You should have 12 volts at pin 18. If not, then work backwards to figure out why -- alarm, ignition switch, etc...

jackkthemackk

pin 18? in the fuse box? somewhat confused, sorry. Could you clarify exactly what you mean by that?

Tom M'Guinn

The DME is in the passenger footwell. It has a big 35-pin connector that plugs onto the top of it. Pin 18 of that connector should have 12v when the ignition is on... Does that help?

Humboldtgrin

He means when you disconnect the DME connector, look at the connector on the pin side. It should have numbers on each side representing the last PIN number on that line,such as 1 on one side and 19 at the other (may be more or less just an example), between them you have to count out the pin location. Find pin 18 on the DME connector behind the wood panel on passanger foot board. You have to remove the wood panel, philips screws I think. The DME is on the right and the KLR (which controls timing on these turbo cars) is on the left with a pressure/vac hose attached to it from the intake manifold.
Or you can keep the connector on and back probe the connector for power or tap the wire.

jackkthemackk

Yes, that clears is up. I know how to access the DME & the 35 connection. Just wasn't sure what pin18 was. Thank you.

Thank you. Will check tonight.

After replacing the relay DME & still getting a no start I kinda of sat in my car for 30 minutes all sad n' what not contemplating life. Right before I got out I turned the key for fun and the damn thing started. Turned it off, turned it on again, it started. Did this about 5 times & then decided to go drive it. Drove it to the skatepark 15 minutes away & was only there for an hour. Car started when I left, was about 1.5 miles from home, cruising going 60mph & lost power. Just shut off. Red warning light & oil pressure light came on but my oil pressure was fine while driving, I don't THINK it had anything to do with my oil, even though the last I drove it before all these issues happened I did change the oil (0W40 to 20W50 Brad Penn), added 6 quarts, middle of the dipstick reading. Oil pressure was 5 idling when cold, 3 when idling warm. 5 when driving. Normal, right? Its a healthy motor, only 45k miles so I don't think that has anything to do with it but I don't know.

jackkthemackk

Also, forgot to mention. After I lost power, i pulled into a parking lot, popped the hood, checked the timing belt, it was fine. Turned the key to see if it would start, nothing. My concern now however is that the oil pressure would now not climb (just barely) when cranking. Thought it could possibly be because the oil temp was warm compared to it cranking when cold & the oil pressure rises. I'm just trying to rule out any oil causing the problem of lost power..

Here's a video of the dash while trying to get it to start after it lost power while driving.

mahoney944

The tach didnt move but nothing really did. I'd say focus on dme power, and check those sensors, new doesn't mean they are good, or haven't come loose, the bar gauge could mean the klr has an issue as well, if you know any local donor computers that may be a quick test too to swap and try. I've heard that the klr can cause starting issues, but can't confirm that. Normally the dme is at fault. I'd swap each computer one at a time to test.

Tom M'Guinn

Yeah, with boost gauge dead and no tach bounce at all, I'd probably still start by checking power to the DME and KLR.

Does your car have an alarm?

Try tapping on the ignition switch before/during cranking, in case it's going out.

The connectors that the speed and reference sensors plug into are known to fray inside. You can install brand new speed and reference sensors and that only eliminates one half of each connector as a potential problem, so by no means should you have confidence that those signals are getting to your DME unless/until you peel back the rubber boots on the harness side connectors and take a look.

But I'd still start by confirming power to the DME/KLR, since the boost gauge suggests they are not getting power.

A dead KLR could cause this as well, since it (a) drives the boost gauge, and (b) processes the ignition signal before returning it to the DME. If you find that you have power to the KLR, you might open the KLR box and look for cracked solder joints where the main connector pins are soldered to the board. Intermittent problems like this are often an electrical signal that randomly connects and disconnects, such as a bad solder joint in the KLR/DME or a frayed wire inside the spd/ref sensor engine harness.

Tom M'Guinn

By the way, it looks like the oil pressure is trying to climb at the end of your cranking there... If the oil was hot, and you only cranked a few seconds, I'm not sure I'd expect much more...

jackkthemackk

There are a few local guys with 951's that could let me borrow their DME or KLR to see if thats the issue. Will be checking for power to it tonight to the DME.

No car alarm. Unplugged & played with the speed/reference sensors too after it died, no luck with them. I'll take out the DME & KLR tonight, check for power & cracked solder joints.

Thanks. Probably would have blown the damn car up with dynamite by now if it wasn't for all the help everyone on this site gives

Humboldtgrin

An easy way to check you sensor wires in the engine harness itself for breaks is an ohms test. After power conformation check for the sensor signal wires for resistance.

When the wire(any) manufactures make these wires at the end of the wire they will solder them together (inside the insulation) . There is so little solder and if in an area of vibration or movement like a door hindge or a big four cylinder engine harness, the wire will break inside the insulation and be a bugger, when the wires touch everything works fine and then your going down the road and the wires warm up and electricity has a harder time traveling thru hot wire then cold wire. Then you hit a tiny bump in the road and the wire is warm enough to stop the "jump" of electricity to the other broken piece of wire, that's when your screwed! It could be your ignition switch as well, do a test on it as well. Maybe someone could dig it out of their books and post the ignition switch test for you. Just keep digging you find it!

jackkthemackk

Alright, got to the DME & KLR. No power to it while cranking. So that would leave it to be the Ignition Switch, correct?

Humboldtgrin

Possibly, I they are still close to $100 so testing it out wouldn't hurt. Or just replace it and have that piece of mined. First check for power coming out of the ignition switch because you could have a broken power wire from the switch to the computers.