So here's what happened, I started my car this morning and it started just fine, and I drove to the gas station and turned my car off. I got some fuel and when
I went to crank the car again it started and ran good for about 2 or 3 seconds, then it shut off by itself. I haven't got it to start again.
Here's things that I've done already:
-First I checked to see if I could hear the fuel pump turn on and I couldn't, so I checked the check valve on the fuel rail and no gas came out.
-Then I pulled the fuel pump relay(after checking fuses) and put a jumper in pin 30 and 87/2 and I heard the fuel pump kick in and then I checked and it had fuel at the fuel rail now. (Still didn't start, just steadily turned over)
-Swapped Radio Suppression Relay with a spare known good one, still no change
-Checked for spark by pulling coil wire off distributor and it had a nice strong blue spark
-Pulled vacuum hose off of fuel pressure regulator and I didn't smell any trace of gas

Anyone have any other suggestions that I can try? The car is still at the gas station right now and I would really like to get it home. Plus I have work tomorrow and would really like to be able to have it going by then! Opinions, advice, anything would be helpful at this point, thanks yall!

-Dillon

 

ok, if you have spark, then the crank position sensor is working.

open the oil cap, have someone crank the engine over, verify that the camshaft inside is turning. if it isn't you need a timing belt (easiest car in the world to change one on).

the timing signal goes from the CPS to the ICU (Ignition Control Unit) that generates spark, and the ICU sends it to the ECU (fuel injection control unit) which sees the engine is moving and turns on the fuel pump via the fuel pump relay. with the fuel pump relay removed, the ECU doesn't get powered even if you jumpered the pumps (you'd need to jumper 30 to 87/1 AND 87/2 to power both the ECU and pumps).

 

Ok, well I got the car home after putting a jumper on the red and red/green wires of the radio suppression relay and it got me home(1/2 mile) then I removed that jumper and removed the jumper on the fuel pump relay and put that relay back in just to see if I could hear the fuel pump kick in since it's quieter at my house and I hear the pump kick on in start II. I didn't expect it to start but I turned the key and it started right up like nothing was wrong. I'm wondering now if it wasn't a grounding issue? Or just some loose connectors on my radio suppression relay? I tightened those up just now and now I'm going over all of my connections and grounding points and cleaning everything, maybe it'll permanently fix it. Thanks Peirce, I've got another question for you also if you have the time haha.

 

I would bet it is the radio suppression relay. When these relays fail it is usually due to cracked solder joints on the little circuit board in the relay. The cracked solder joints fail intermittently causing them to work at times and other times not. I usually just resolder all the joints in the relay and that fixes the problem.

 

Look at the Crankshaft Position Sensor--these kinds of symptoms usually call for that...

 

Is that the sensor mounted on the back of the block lev? Also know as the rpm sensor? I checked it while all of that was going on and it looked good, wires looked good and everything, but it is still very possible that it could be acting up every now and again

 

Yes, that's it. Not about the looks of it--it may look fine but be bad once heated up...

 

Ohh ok, I got you, if it starts acting up again that's the first thing I'll check, but as of right now she's running pretty good, I put about 300 miles on it after all of this happened with no hiccups so I'm hoping cleaning my grounds up and making a better connection to my radio suppression relay fixed it, thanks lev!

 

again, if the car has spark, then the CPS is probably working, because it takes timing pulses to generate spark.