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88 SE won't start

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Old 08-22-08 | 09:07 PM
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From: Oklahoma
88 SE won't start

It is not flooded, I tried taking out the EGI fuse, plugs have been cleaned and a little oil was put in the bottom plug hole. It will not start, it turns over, and over, and over but that is all it does. I drove home parked it and 2 hours later I came out to find out it would not start at all. Any Ideas? I need my daily driver back
166k miles ran fine two hours previous... well it ran neways
Old 08-22-08 | 10:04 PM
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From: SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, CA
im having the same problem i crank it so much that it drains my battery. i even disconnected the gas pump to see if it was flooded then cranked it to clear the gas, then put the hose back on and cranked it again but it still wont start. the fuel pump is fine cause i felt the gas spray when i hit the switch. could it be injector problems?
Old 08-22-08 | 10:28 PM
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Hmmm..could be a number of things.

Find your TPS, make sure its making a good connection. If it's not making good connection, your motor wont fire off.

After you try turning the motor over, is there fuel on the plugs? If so, how much?

Check your coils to make sure their producing spark. ( Just take a plug out, keep it hooked up to your ignition wire, ground it, as it just touch the frame with the plug, get someone turn the motor over)

Yes, S4's are well known to flood, you might need to try and deflood it.

You also need to check the compression, that could be the whole gist of it.

+ their not so easy to crank whenever their warmed up.
Old 08-23-08 | 03:04 PM
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After I turn the motor over there is maybe a drop of gas on the top plugs and the bottom plugs are dry. also something dripped out when I took one plug out. I don't remember which though.

Ill check the TPS and spark and see what happens. Could It have anything to do with the fuel pump or filter? When it drove before it would die occasionally on hills, turns, and when the car sits still at stop lights.

Oh and after turning over.. exhaust kinda smokes and smells of fuel also a very small amout of steam or smoke rises from the engine and smells of fuel.
Old 08-23-08 | 04:46 PM
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Ok so I havent checked the tps cuz idk how. but the plugs all spark.

I did a compression test and i got 0 on both rotors. Is that possible? It was running fine the other day when I parked it. I did a compression test on a small engine i have to test my tester... and I got compression so its not the tester. Could I have done something wrong or is it rebuild time?
Old 08-23-08 | 06:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Sol4FC
Ill check the TPS and spark and see what happens. Could It have anything to do with the fuel pump or filter? When it drove before it would die occasionally on hills, turns, and when the car sits still at stop lights.
Sounds to me like you might have a dirty sock on your pump brother. Check that and get back to us. My friend was experiencing the same problems. and it was the SOCK!!!
Old 08-25-08 | 08:47 AM
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Honestly, that realy does sound like your pump is either going out, it already has gone out, or its not getting the recommended amount of voltage to it.
I new fuel pump wouldnt be a bad idea to replace either.

I realy dont think your car suddenly droped to 0 on both rotors, I'm sure you just tested it wrong.

And as for the smoke and fuel smell...hmmm, Usaly when fuel pumps are about to go out, they push themselfs realy hard then go.

That smoke might have been only from when you checked your plugs and dripped fuel onto the motor or somewhere hot.

The TPS connector is right around your throttle cable and throttle body. The TPS itself is a black peice with two button like triggers on it. So whenever you open your throttle, it pushs your TPS triggers in to let your car know how much fuel to put out.

So, just get yourself a new fuel pump and if you have the money, go ahead and get a new fuel filter while your at it. See what happens. Also, findout how to properly test your compression.
Old 08-25-08 | 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by HKSpoweredFC3S
Honestly, that realy does sound like your pump is either going out, it already has gone out, or its not getting the recommended amount of voltage to it.
I new fuel pump wouldnt be a bad idea to replace either.

I realy dont think your car suddenly droped to 0 on both rotors, I'm sure you just tested it wrong.

And as for the smoke and fuel smell...hmmm, Usaly when fuel pumps are about to go out, they push themselfs realy hard then go.

That smoke might have been only from when you checked your plugs and dripped fuel onto the motor or somewhere hot.

The TPS connector is right around your throttle cable and throttle body. The TPS itself is a black peice with two button like triggers on it. So whenever you open your throttle, it pushs your TPS triggers in to let your car know how much fuel to put out.

So, just get yourself a new fuel pump and if you have the money, go ahead and get a new fuel filter while your at it. See what happens. Also, findout how to properly test your compression.

I think you made a valid point here, but would the pump really have those symptoms under cornering and what the OP described?
Old 08-25-08 | 10:07 PM
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Ok thanks a bunch for your help I'll make sure to check the sock out, as well as replacing and checking my pump and filter. I'll post again once I have checked out those things
Old 08-25-08 | 10:08 PM
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Don't replace your pump, check if its got voltage going to it! If it does, and jumping the yellow wire on the passenger side strut tower doesn't work then replace it.
Old 08-25-08 | 10:48 PM
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[QUOTE=HKSpoweredFC3S;8487202]Find your TPS, make sure its making a good connection. If it's not making good connection, your motor wont fire off.
QUOTE]

untrue... these cars are only obd1 therefore they do not rely heavily on any one sensor, if his tps was bad the engine could still fire....hell if he unpluged the tps the engine would still fire

[QUOTE=HKSpoweredFC3S;8487202]The TPS connector is right around your throttle cable and throttle body. The TPS itself is a black peice with two button like triggers on it. So whenever you open your throttle, it pushs your TPS triggers in to let your car know how much fuel to put out.
QUOTE]
wrong again...the tps is strictly a calculation modifier its only telling how far to/from wot the butterfly is....technicaly it manages air intake...and on top of that s4 tps's only have a single contact point s5's had dual to make the measurement more acurate

first check your fuses! a blown fuse could easily not make your car turn over

check for voltage at each sensor to see if its correct..there is such thing as a sensor "sticking" both ways, so if your not so mechanically inclined.. unplug the tps and see if theres any if your engine holds idle after you unplug it then thats what you need to change...also test with other sensors such as afm and map.....

though since you ruled out spark, all thats left to check is fuel and air...so check your fuel pump too as said above, if that works then all thats left is air, then its all about the sensors

if the tps/afm reads full close it will take that as close to zero air getting into the system and therefore starve your engine on startup it is possible that both your cars tps map and afm could have died....you wouldnt really notice them dieing since the way the system works when a sensor reads out of range consistently, it disregards input and focuses more on sensors that are still close to whats stored in the pcm...if they poped one by one the car would run out of options and either 1, no start, or 2 more on newer cars; go into limp mode and run on a pre installed set of tables to run the engine on...
Old 08-25-08 | 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Sol4FC
When it drove before it would die occasionally on hills, turns, and when the car sits still at stop lights.

Oh and after turning over.. exhaust kinda smokes and smells of fuel also a very small amout of steam or smoke rises from the engine and smells of fuel.
I think this is your bigger issue. Find out what is causing that and I'm sure you'll find out why you cannot start your car. I'd vote for overheated/blown motor, but I've been fortunate to never experience either so I can't tell your for sure.
Old 08-25-08 | 11:22 PM
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Originally Posted by TongassT
I think this is your bigger issue. Find out what is causing that and I'm sure you'll find out why you cannot start your car. I'd vote for overheated/blown motor, but I've been fortunate to never experience either so I can't tell your for sure.
bingo!!! how did i miss that! its not very possible that it could blow that fast however....what im talking about is that you ruled out fuel!

ok so know we no your getting spark and fuel....whats missing?
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