juice, is the starter spinning. or is the motor actually turning over and just not firing?
if the starter motor is spinning but the motor isnt rotating, then your starter solnoid may be bad or going bad… do u have manual or auto tranny? can you try to push start the car?
turn the key to on… get car rolling and put it in 1st gear and pop the clutch out while the key in the ignition is turned to on… you can also do this in reverse (i’ve done it quite a few times… i have a bad spot in my starter)
hey man thanx for the quick reply, much appreciated
“is the starter spinning. or is the motor actually turning over and just not firing?”
that i’m not too sure about, since i dunno what i should hear/look for of the difference between the starter spinning vs the motor turning over and not firing…
my teg is auto tranny, but i just took a look at the engine and i there seems to be more oil all below the engine cover than i remembered the last time i check, but there is still lots of oil in the car… could it have leaked into the cyclinders??? :’( … that would suck…
since i have auto tranny cuz i try to push start the car still?
When you turn the key does it sound like it wants to start but doesn’t have enough power? If that’s the case it’s probably your battery. Clean the posts and the clamps and try it. If that don’t work, try and get a jump or someone’s good battery, if that don’t work…I don’t know. Try the simple stuff first though.
If the car does nothing, it could be your starter, or again your battery could be dead or dirty. Sorry, the only starting problems I had were battery and starter related. Or no gas.
open your hood, have a friend or someone from your family turn the key over to start the car… you watch the power steering belt and alternator belt… if they move, then the engine is turning over but not starting. if they dont move and you hear something spinning, it will be your starter. if the starter is spinning, then the starter solnoid is bad. (it has to engage the starter to the flywheel)
i hope that helps you. post your results here and the other guys and i’ll try to help you out.
one other thing that it could be, is your ignition coil. I drove my car just fine then parked it, tried to start it and it just keep trying to start but it would never fully engage the motor, I found out that it was the coil, everything was running fine but the distributor wasn’t getting electricity to the engine which goes through the coil, or something like that, I’m not sure but I know an ignition coil might be one prob.
WHOA thanx guys for all the great inpu
very appreciated
93integraRS: i’ll find some time very soon to check out if its the starter or not as fast as i can
if i think its the starter, but since the coil is also suggested as a possibility, how can i differentiate between a starter problem vs a coil problem??? (sorry, i’m still learning :()
if your engine turns over, then it possibly could be the coil… but if the starter is spinning and the engine isnt turning over… then its the starter solnoid.
to tell if the coil is bad you have to check to see if you get spark.
download the helms in my sig and/or go get a haynes manual to walk you through the diagnostics
main fuel relay
coil
igniter
are main causes for our cars. if the shop says its the distributor, it may very well be as my guy says they dont sell the igniter separately, you gotta get teh whole distro. rebuilt ones run about 220. install is a snap, maybe 25-40.
another consideration is just upgrading the coil/igniter to msd since i think theyre about teh same price. might as well go performance right? i dunno someone else can clarify on this
ok the easiest way to see if your engine is turning over is, when ur tryin to start ur car, is your car shaking? lol you guys know what i mean your car vibrates like any other car when cranking
if its just spinning it will be a high pitch nasty sound, thats your starter free spinning
your coil, i heard from a source wont cause you to have no spark at all, but just a weak spark. There is ways to test the coil, i would check for spark and if u dont have any spark then test those.
when you put your key in second position (turn it but don’t start it) look at your dash lights and see if the check engine light stays on or not. It should be on then just click off…its a very very quiet click. If it doesn’t turn off then it could very possibly be your main fuel relay which is located behind the knee panel on the drivers side. If you kick it a bunch of times kinda hard it will sometimes start to work, but this isn’t recomended. WHat happens is the wires in the main fuel relay have a bad connection with their solders when it get really hot cus the solders melt. So you pretty much just have to let inside the car cool down. ANd i found that my car does this more when i get crap gas (crap gas = anything but chevron texaco or shell). PS don’t get race track gas.
oh yah. and the if its the main fuel relay then the car will still try to turn over. And the shaking JETS is talking about isn’t that bad, its just like if the car was about to start but doesn’t. THe high pitch nasty sound sounds like one of the party whistle things.
My car doesnt crank up at all, but it has power in everything. I dorve it great da other day, and the next day it wouldnt start. Later that day, it starts. Then the next it didnt start at all… ¥¥¥¥. Im going crazy.
