1990 240sx not starting, getting fuel, etc

[theboy419]

Hello, I did a quick search but didn't quite find anything to answer my question. I'm hopefully dropping my car off at the local mechanic's on monday but hoping maybe someone has seen this before and can help.My car won't start, but starter and battery seem to be cranking fine and hard. Weird part is, after trying to crank it for a lil while, if you let it sit you can smell fuel, so it seems like the injectors are spraying too. Plugs are all but new, so is distro cap and rotor. Not sure if this is something simple or complex. My friend said maybe the fuel pressure regulator, but i'd imagine it would do something.Oh, almost forgot. The first time i tried to turn it over, it started, rumbled around 400rpm for a sec or two and stalled, then from there did what it is now.I'm a bit baffled, heading to the parts store today to maybe see if its the coil by chance? or something else electrical? otherwise looks like i'll try fuel pressure regulator unless anyone else has a better idea :-/

[smokin240]

What did it do before it got to this point? Were you in the middle of driving it and it died or just one day never started?

[theboy419]

Over the winter months I noticed my bumper was getting kinda dark with soot from what seemed like a rich mixture but had never pinned it down to a specific part, kinda assumed it was just the ECU over compensating cause of the cold weather. Come spring it lessened a lil but still has done it a little bit atleast, but it started this crazy bucking while I'd be driving but it often would last for a little then go away. I noticed one day that my rear brake caliper seized so i changed that, and also put a temp sensor on my electric fans cause it had never been wired in when we first put those in. The problem went away for a while until the past week or so when its been starting real hard, almost stalling each time, then driving it would buck again no matter how i was driving, steady on the highway or accelerating on regular roads. I drove to work with it acting up, then went to go to lunch that night and it started once but started funky like it had done earlier in the week, but only started maybe a few seconds then stalled, so i figured I'd try again. That is when it stopped starting. The thing is, it seems to be getting all electrical fine, and you can smell it pumping fuel cause when you let it sit you begin to smell REAL heavy amount of fuel somewhere.

[chifarmer]

Have you checked the engine temperature sensor, the one on the intake manifold, not the bottom radiator hose? If this is shot, corroded or the connector corroded it can cause the engine to run so rich it won't start.

[theboy419]

well i just dropped the car off at the shop, it was able to start but barely, sputted the whole way there, but i'll try to mention it to him tomorrow when i stop by(he's right across the road, thankfully) so we'll see.

[theboy419]

Well, this is fun. Got the car back from the shop, runnin fine, did idle at like 600 for a little while but once I started pushing her she seemed to idle back at 700 or so again. The low idling was causing it to make a weird noise under the hood but that also seemed to go away. However, now my hand brake light stays on... I can't imagine what he would have touched electrically aside from the battery, and he said the same when I asked him about it. It goes off every so often when I'm on the throttle but the moment I change the throttle it comes back on. It does seem to make a slight buzzing sound when that happens too... But weird part of that is, same thing happened last may and it was the alternator(says nissan dealership) so they replaced it with a new $300 one that somehow did fix it till now... but i can't see it being alternator again... and its not low brake fluid cause that's fine... only thing I can think is calipers, cause I know the front passenger side is beginning to seize and wear too quick, just didn't have money to replace it yet... but if anyone has any ideas lemme know, hoping its not too electrically involved, i hunted the forum for some ideas but we'll see i guess... thanks for everything tho