help! Car won't start!

[jimsun]

Hey guys, Ive been lurking around looking to see if a similar problem has occurred to anyones car before. I hope that someone could shed some light to a possible solution.

Here’s the issue.
My uncles car, the quest, was working fine except for the check engine light. He said he didnt bother fixing it. Then one day, the car decided to stall at a left turn intersection and wouldn’t start. He called me and I got it towed to his house.

When i got the chance to look at it, i noticed the CEL and read it. It’s a P0135 (sensor bank 1). I bought the new sensor and replaced the bad front heated o2 sensor.
Now, when i try starting the car, it would idle roughly up to 2.5k RPM and after 10-15 seconds of rough idling, she decides to call it quits.

Fast forward, 2 hours later, i opened the engine bay and checked the spark plugs, dizzxy cap, battery, gas pump and the battery is in check. On top of that, his air filter is dirty and there’s a significant gap inbetween the air box filter case is that’s letter air from the engine bay to directly get sucked into the intake without getting filtered.

I started the car again, this time, it won’t past 800-900 RPM and after 5-7 seconds, she dies out. Then I tried again, she tries hard to start but no avail. This time though, there’s that BZZZZZZZT sound. Idk what that is but it sounded really bad. My uncle then tried to do it too and same deal only this time, the white smoke coming from the exhaust is a lot whiter

Any ideas guys of what this could be? He’s going to be working night shift next week (4-2am) with no means of transportation. I gotta get this thing solved out because of all the time and effort he has put up helping me when i need help the most.
Thank you very much and sry for the long read.


TLDR: uncle’s car dies in intersection. Car doesn’t start. Got to his house tried to start it and there’s a BBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTT noise that’s coming from the car.

[rstolz]

There's a lot here, try to take the time to read it all.

thick white exhaust smoke is an indication of coolant burning. could be a blown head gasket, but let's not jump to conclusions there just yet, as coolant can sneak into the combustion chambers from other areas as well.

First thing to do is check the oil. Remove a valve cover or open the oil filler cap and get a look at the oil. if there's any frothiness or film on the oil, then there's definitely coollant in it. also check the coolant reservoir. If the coolant looks brown, there's oil in it.

both those things point to a blown head gasket.

The P0135 code isn't jsut to tell you that the sensor is bad, it is more likely trying to warn you that the engine is running lean due to some problem. A lean condition is caused by excess air in the combustion mixture or incomplete combustion.

Unfiltered air: I wouldn't worry too much about that, as long as nothing big, or too solid (rock, glass, ceramic, etc) gets in there, most particulate will end up getting pulverized and incinerated with little ill effect, at least in the short term.

BZZZT noise: 9/10 this ins 1 of 2 things. Either your battery is dead, or you've burned up the starter motor (more specifically the solenoid).

1/10 its the fuel pump or throttle body. where is the noise coming from? down by the trans? back of the vehicle?

google search a spark plug chart, then pull the spark plugs. compare what you see to the chart. spark plugs don't lie; they will tell you if they're fouled, worn, arcing, running rich, lean, etc etc.

[jimsun]

I pulled the spark plugs. The colour was bronze/black like colour. This indicates that it's good afaik due the fact that this is the go to colour for motorcycle plugs (i could be wrong for cars).

The oil was recently done and the old oil characteristic is intact. Doesn't look any different from my bike/car's used oil.

The coolant was changed I believe he said half a year ago. I have checked the reservoir and the coolant colour is pretty clean (no brown or oil colour mixed into it)

The bzzzt noise came from the front. This is in assumption it's the trans? Should I attempt an ATF change?

The fuel pump is good because I do hear it prime and the plugs do get fouled with fuel because of the amount of failed start attempts.

What i did noticed is that it failed the spark plug test. It seems like that wasn't any sparks coming out of the plugs (grounding the thread)

The car cranks like it should (not like a turbine with no compression)

[rstolz]

the engine's starter is attached near the trans. You've probably burnt up the starter motor, or run the battery dead by cranking it too much.

compare the plugs to a chart, they're easy to find online.

clean oil and coolant are a good sign, but you're still getting coolant into the exhaust stream, which is not good.

And now your not getting spark, which is also not good. The no-spark condition is probably being triggered by the ECU, to protect itself.

I don't know that engine well enough to help much more, but i'd check timing, and replace any gaskets that may let coolant into the combustion chamber. replace the 02X, and clean the throttle body.

If that engine has a Mass Airflow meter, you'll want to clean or replace that as well.

rescanning the vehicle for trouble codes would also be useful.

[jimsun]

Hey thanks for the replies

The starter is good because it's cranking. The battery is still good because it's being charged.

How does the MAF affect the start up of a car? By replace the 2 02x that's the 2 sensors right? I'e replaced both. The throttle body has been cleaned. Theres no code

[ricebike]

get that battery load-tested after you have charged it up...just charging it up won't verify if it's still good

what's the date code? ~ should be on a sticker

[jimsun]

I have placed my battery on the van which has 200 more cca and created just last year.

[rstolz]

just because a battery is being charged doesn't mean its holding the charge. thae load test is required. Even new batteries fail when put through extreme exercises, such as multiple successive crank/charge cycles.

A starter solenoid will fail intermittently, and/or may not function properly if voltage/amperage supply is below threshold limits. In that case you get your BZZZT noise coming from the starter. It may also be cranking the engine, but not retracting the starter gear, introducing excessive drag, and resulting in the engine not starting and a whine-like noise.

The MAF measures airflow, and together with the primary (upstream) 02X, determines how much fuel to supply the engine at any given time. If the MAF is shot, typically the engine would resort to preset parameters (overly rich), and thus not affect startup. But you'll still want to get that fixed, or eventually, running overly rich will ruin the cat.

Honestly you can ignore the rear 02X, it's non-essential; all it does is report cat efficiency, and won't affect operation.