Car No Go

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

Aside from the tests that Brett has suggested, you might also have a warm up regulator (WUR) going bad. 
A bad WUR would not necessarily cause the car not to start, but will cause a poor idle on cold engine.
You could also have a bad cold start injector or thermo-time switch.
If you have a Bentley the tests for the CIS, and in particular the cold start components, is pretty straight forward.


From: "Brett Van Sprewenburg" <brett@ataxxia.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: Car No Go


> 
> You could spend a lot of time jumping from thing to thing trying to  
> figure this out, but you really need just a few bits coming together  
> at just the right time to get the engine running.
> 
> 1. Fuel - you can check this in an interesting variety of ways.  One  
> way that is arguably the "best" in your situation is to pull each  
> injector, raise the CIS metering plate, and crank the car.  I won't  
> go into the details on how to do this properly, but you're dealing  
> with gas, be smart.  Is the fuel pump even running?
> 
> 2. Spark - a few ways and places to check this depending on how your  
> diagnoses goes (same thing for fuel BTW if you discover a problem).   
> Pull plugs wires, insert metal object like a screwdriver or punch  
> into the business end, hold near the cylinder head while cranking.   
> Sparky? Take the necessary percautions not to shock yourself or run  
> over yourself while cranking the car.  You should take care not to  
> combine this test necessarily with the fuel test above unless your  
> into fireballs up close and personal.  Pulled the distributer yet and  
> checked the rotor and cap posts?
> 
> 3. Compression - are the pistons moving up and down in a cyclic  
> fashion?  Do they all move, becuase it's a bummer if they don't.  A  
> compression testing can come in handy here too, as it would help  
> diagnose valve train issues.  Checked the timing belt yet?
> 
> Finally, all the above needs to happen at just the right time, except  
> for fuel...who in the cheap seats can say what the 'c' means in  
> CIS? :-)  Is you're timing "on"?  (distributing not walking around on  
> you?)
> 
> I've been a bit "flip" over the procedures above, but I'm serious on  
> the 3 things. Check them and hopefully you'll figure it out (could  
> even be a bad ignition switch, causing spark and / or fuel to be absent)
> 
> I'm going to go with "spark" for $100 Alex, I mean Nate...
> 
> ==Brett
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Nov 8, 2006, at 8:59 PM, Nate Lowe wrote:
> 
>> The car and I both just got a lovely ride in a tow truck to get home
>> tonight. I stopped for gas, filled up, then tried to start her up  
>> to leave.
>> It turns over and over but will never "catch" and start running.  
>> It's been
>> hard to start lately, takes a good 5-10 seconds to finally start  
>> up. Before
>> tonight, I could try for 2-3 seconds, turn the key to the "on"  
>> position
>> (before it started running), wait a second, then turn it to start  
>> again and
>> it would start much easier the second time. It also started fine  
>> whenever it
>> was warm. I know the "it just won't start" symptom is vague, but  
>> that's all
>> I have to go on right now. Ironically, this happened while I was  
>> looking at
>> a GTI I wanted to pick up as a daily. Maybe she's just jealous.
>> Nate
>>
> 
> 
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