s13 DIED..Wont start or eve crank! PLEASE...any advice! I WANT MY CAR! :(

[thelilbambina]

I will take any advice. One day my s-13 240's over drive started going on and off (on its own) while i was driving, only for a split second once and a while. i dont know if this has to do with the same thing but one day the car just died. i pulled over and it started one more time ran for about 30 seconds and died again....NEVER started again! it cranks, but WILL NOT start. thought is was the FUEL PUMP...its not. already changed and checked:fuel pump,compuer,distributor. since this happenedI dont think the injectors or fuel pump are getting groundI have even called some "specialist" who thought it was the computer then distributor and after I found out it wasn't those, he had no other ideas.....PLEASE HELP ME! Ill take any ideas i miss my 240 so bad !

Modified by thelilbambina at 5:50 PM 4/20/2009
Modified by thelilbambina at 3:33 PM 4/21/2009

[vancouverbc]

it doesnt turn over? that is obviously easy to trouble shoot. see starter tutorial. test your groundings. see ground tutorial.

[thelilbambina]

its not turning over, no. The injectors and fuel pump are not getting ground..

[vancouverbc]

ground is just the negative of battery connected to engine and then to firewall and rest of the car body. check it per the tutorial. the starter is a simple electric motor that needs ground and 12v positve. easy to diagnose.

[vancouverbc]

the fuel pump ground is constant from body of car. looks like your main ground wire is loose or corroded etc.

[vancouverbc]

if you mean the fuel pump relay is not getting ground, that would mean something different.

[PyR0NiAk]

holy s*** vancouverbc no wonder your post count is so high... try clicking edit

[vancouverbc]

holy s*** vancouverbc no wonder your post count is so high... try clicking edit

very helpful. recorded.

[vancouverbc]

OP, find out why your car is not cranking. That is easiest to diagnose. Could be as simple as a bad alternator.

[ShaunakaRichard]

Okay, plain and simple. It doesn't matter if your fuel pump and injectors aren't being grounded. All that is needed to crank the motor (as in not even starting up just cranking) over is sending power to the starter. There are two hots. One is the main large hot coming from the battery. The second is going to the solenoid on the starter, this wire will be small. The starter is grounded to the motor block. There should be a ground wire going from you body or battery to the intake manifold. The motor should be grounded through the motor mounts anyway but just check and make sure that ground is good anyway. Then try putting 12v to the solenoid. Unplug the small wire going to the starter. Then you can either run a wire from the battery or get a wire and jump for the large wire to the solenoid(where the small wire was). This will tell you right away if the starter is bad or if the solenoid is bad. Do this first before everything else!! Also get a volt meter and make sure the battery has 12 volts on it. Starter won't turn if your battery is dead.

[DrJuice164]

If putting 12v directly to the starter still doesn't work, try hitting it with a wrench/hammer/(insert tool here). Then try putting 12v to it again, sometimes starters form dead spots and need some help.

Note: this is only a temp solution, replace your starter ASAP.

[xru5tyx]

did you check your alternator?

[Leachguy]

Did you check your wiring to your transmission? If the wiring harness is being worn through for your trans and the park/neutral wire is one of the ones being worn through it wouldn't crank. That would also be a possible cause for the in and out of the overdrive.
Modified by Leachguy at 5:24 PM 4/22/2009

[flipskater438]

fuel pump, ign, injector relays could be bad that or the fuses to them sometimes its something simple that gets easily overlooked

[vancouverbc]

Did you check your wiring to your transmission? If the wiring harness is being worn through for your trans and the park/neutral wire is one of the ones being worn through it wouldn't crank. That would also be a possible cause for the in and out of the overdrive.

Modified by Leachguy at 5:24 PM 4/22/2009

Just to be clear, a 5-speed s13 will crank regardless of the condition of any switches on the transmission. The only switches to be concerned with are the clutch interlock switch and ignition switch. As I said , check the tutorial.