As the title says, I was cruising 55 with the AC blasting yesterday when the car hesitated twice, then stalled (acted like it was out of gas - but I had just filled the tank 38 miles ago). Now it will not start. Turns over freely, and the injectors are spitting fuel. It is throwing no codes.

I am thinking it's electrical, but I have yet to do any tests for spark. I was thinking the coil is bad because I heard that they commonly croak when there is extreme heat under the hood, but I wanted to consult the boards first.

I am open to any and all ideas.

Thanks,

KZad

 

Also could be the ICM. You can get that tested at a parts store.

 

It's spitting fuel, so the ECM is getting reference pulses. That means the pickup coil is good, and the ECM is good.

Does the tach show RPMs while it's cranking?

If not, it's the ignition module.

If it does, it's the coil, coil wire, rotor, or dist cap.

 

I havn't looked to see if the tach is showing RPM's during cranking. I actually dont think it EVER showed during cranking, but maybe I just havn't noticed. I will look tonight.

IF it's not moving, I will get the ICM tested. Where is it located? I'm assuming ICM = Ignition Control Module. Would that have failed while driving though?

 

It should show around 200-300 RPM while cranking. Right, usually it doesn't crank long enough to notice. Basically though, all you're looking for, is something vs nothing.

The ICM is inside the distributor. Yes they fail quite often; much more often than coils. Very very common cause of the sudden out-of-the-blue "die while driving down the road" behavior.

 

Glad to hear it's inside the distributor. That's the second place I was going to look.

 

I got a chance to check the ICM after work today. It didn't show the 200-300 RPM like I thought it would, it did more of a flicker -- barely moving, but still there was the slightest movement.

I started marking up the plug wires in order to pull the dist. cap when I thought to myself ... let me double check that I do have fuel. Wouldn't you figure -- nothing. There must have been some pressure in the lines right after I broke down that was allowing the injectors to spray.

We traced the power to the fuel pump relay with a volt meter. My buddy who's good with the electrical components assures me that we have power entering, and leaving the relay which means that the fuel pump is receiving 12V of power, but is not priming. (After there was no fuel at the TB, I listened for the fuel pump priming and there was nothing).

Where do I go from here?

I just replaced the fuel pump no more than 6 months ago (over the winter). Is there something that I am doing wrong that I keep going through fuel pumps (if that IS the problem this time)?

KZad

 

sounds like a dead pump.. what kind of pump did you replace it with? Was a good, brand new AC delco unit, or was it a cheap one from autozone?

 

This would tend to rule out the fuel pump.

On the other hand, if that's not really true, then maybe you get to re-visit that.

In any case, you can verify by squirting starting fluid in it. If it cranks up and then dies, then you have a fuel delivery problem. If it doesn't crank, then you have a spark or compression problem.

How did your ignition module test? Do you have spark (observed at a plug)?

 

Sofakingdom - when I first broke down, I checked for fuel and the injectors were spraying. I assume it was some leftover pressure in the lines or something. Last night they were dry as a bone while cranking.

I didnt check for spark because quite honestly the thought of the fuel pump failing again really pissed me off. The ICM test showed the tack 'flickering', not really hitting the 200-300 RPM mark like suggested.

The fuel pump itself was the cheap-o Advanced Auto pump. I just called and it was a "Master" brand with a 1 year warranty, so it's free if I want another. Not sure if I learned my lesson yet.

I am going to try the starter fluid tonight and see if I can get 'er to run on that. If I have time I'll also throw the inductive timing light on each plug wire to see if I have spark to the plugs. Any other ideas?