Hello,
About a week ago I was at the park. I pulled over to the curb to wait and turned off the car. When I tried to start it again it would not start. We looked at all the spark plugs, which were OK and had someone jump us. The car started. We thought it was the battery so we went and got a new one. The car ran fine for a few days. Then I went to grocery store. When I came out the car would not start. I tried jumping it, it would not start. A few people came buy and looked at it and said the engine was not getting a spark. They pulled some wires while I turned the key so I couldn't see what was happening. They said that it was the ignition coil. So I replaced this part as well as the spark plugs. Car still won't start. I can smell fuel so I know that it is not a fuel issue. I also had the fuel filter and fuel pump replaced about 10 months ago. I am at a loss and don't know where to go next. Battery appears to be still at full charge, and wouldn't take a jump, so I am guessing it is not the alternator. I also checked all of the fuses and none are burned out. It is starting, and sounds like it is almost going to turn over but just can't. If you keep trying you just flud the engine. I have got to do something so any advise you can give would be great.

 

Can you hear the fuel pump kick on? You shouldnt be able to smell gas. Could be your fuel pump relay, fuel pressure regulator going bad, cam sensor. I doubt it has anything thing to do with your ign. System. Check your fuel pressure, theres a valve on right side of the fuel rail, autoparts store will rent them out for cheap.

 

Where are you located ??
You could be smelling gas because you have a leak. In a carbureated vehicle it will smell of gas because of the short distance from the carb to the snorkel intake. Due to the ducting on a fuel injected engine from the intake to the air cleaner it's less likely you'd be able to smell gas even if it was flooded.

You need to find someone to do the diagnostics to figure out if you don't have spark or if you are not getting fuel. If you did flood the engine from repeated attempts to start it you likely wouldn't be able to get it started again until you pulled the plugs out and burnt off the gas. Easiest to do with a torch.

Your descriptions are a little vauge as I don't understand what you mean when you say "Battery appears to be still at full charge, and wouldn't take a jump" What does wouldn't take a jump mean ??

A vehicle can "turn over" for as long as there is electricty in the battery to spin the starter. Turning over is what an engine does to pull in the fuel and air mixture while it's getting spark to get started and run on it's own. A vehicle "starts" when it's running on it's own and the starter is NOT turning it. So your 850 will turn over but not start. I'm not trying to be petty, I'm just trying to get you on the same page so if someone can offer advice you understand what they are saying and they understand what you're describing. The more accurate you can be the easier and more accurate the help offered will be.

Presently is the car dead or is this problem intermittent where sometimes it won't start and other times it will ??

It's best to not rule out anything you haven't tested. New parts fail too and something recently replaced can kill you in a diagnostic situation if you label it good because it's new but you haven't tested it. It's much less likely to be bad if it's new but anything easy to test or free to test should get tested early on to save you time and heartache. You can get the alternator tested at any auto parts store for free and them you KNOW it's good, not guess. Same with the battery and it can be done with the same handheld machine and you don't have to take either out of the vehicle for them to help you.

To check your fuel pressure you need a gauge and it screws on to the schrader valve at the drivers side end of the fuel rail (picture 1)

 

Hi Mad Tom's Mom, welcome to the forum.

Turning over and cranking are the same, it means that the car is trying to start but not firing (usually no spark).

If the battery is good, because the car is cranking fast or at the normal cranking speed, the alternator is normally not a factor. The main job of the alternator is to charge the battery once the car is running. You can usually drive a car with a bad alternator as long as the battery is good and has a good charge on it.

When you say the car would not jump I guess you mean that a new attempt to jump it did not make a difference.

If you smell gas it's likely due to a bad vacuum line or elbow somewhere. If you flooded the motor because you are trying to start it and it hasn't fired, as Kiss said, you will need to dry that fuel out. However, I would not recommend you try to torch anything. Just pull the plugs and let the gas air dry.

I will say that you did good by giving all the information that you could think of. Here is what I would suggest...

FIRST: Do you have a CEL (check engine light)? People drive around with that thing lit all the time with minor issues. Then when something more serious happens they have no CEL ALERT because the light has been on for months. So, if the light is on you will need to get it scanned to see if the car has tripped a new fault code. Go from there. It really sounds like the problem started and got worse, now it's bad (not bad in expensive bad, just no start bad). THIS IS NOT THE PROBLEM per say but there is a good chance that you have a bad crank or cam sensor, or maybe a bad MAF. The code will tell you. So have the codes read and post them back here if you would please.

Another thing you can do is shoot a video and link it here. Don't give up.

 

I've used a torch for cleaning plugs on a lot of cars. Even more mowers and snow blowers. Snow blowers don't dry out when it's below zero Put a glove on one hand and just heat the plug until it quits giving off a yellow flame. I live in Minnesota and back when there were carburetors everywhere it was very common in winter months to have vehicles dragged in that were so flooded you needed to clean the plugs, put the torch to the cylinder hole and hear a "wosh" as the fuel in the cylinder ignited and once you fired it up and ran it a couple minutes, drop the oil and filter as there was noticeable gas in the oil. Never had a problem using a torch. With iridium plugs running 6.99 each I'd still use a torch as it's the best way to get them clean from gas or from carbon fouling, second only to just replacing them.

Just not a big torch !!