My car will not start.

[toy-driver]

A little more than a month ago I was driving down the street and the motor stalled. It cranks no problem but won't really start. I towed the car home and have been messing with it. It cranks almost starts then stalls. If I let it sit for 10+ minutes it will start for about 5 seconds and then stall. I let it sit for a week and it ran smooth for about 2 minutes, after which it started popping out the exhaust, stumbled and died. If I give it throttle I can keep it running but afterburning and stumbling like crazy till it finally dies. It is loud as Heck. After the car runs you can smell raw fuel and the spark plugs are wet with gas.

Timing belt is ok. Spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor and coil are only a few months old. There is fuel pressure and spark.

After a long time of being driven to work I decided it must be the AFM. So I bought a rebuilt unit. Popped it in, ran for a min or two and then went back to not starting.

SO if anybody can help me that would be awesome. Thanks guys

[sliverstorm]

Try adjusting the timing? rotate the distributor to the right (when facing the front of the car) and try starting. Then rotate it left, PAST where it was before, and try starting again? You might want to mark where it is now just for a reference, and so you can go back if it doesn't help. If doing this rotating lets it start ok, once it's running do timing.
MKI MR2 Write-ups

[toy-driver]

Why would the timing go from fine to bad?

[sliverstorm]

I have no idea, why do any of these things happen? But frankly if your spark plugs are getting a good spark and the cylinders are getting air fuel, it pretty much has to be either timing or mixture. Only other thing I can think of is the spark plugs are not gapped properly, or your alternator/battery is on it's way out. (which is consistent with it working after you let it sit off)

[toy-driver]

Well I played with moving the distributor back and forth for an hour with no go. Everything seems tip top. Any other guesses? I'm almost out.

[sliverstorm]

See if you can borrow a fully charged battery from another car, and stick that in? If it works and then dies after a few min, alternator might be dying. If it works and stays good, blame the battery IMHO

oh and u can try digging on google, search something like "can't start unburnt fuel" Speaking of which I'll do that now.

Car and Truck Engine Will Not Start Questions <- here's one page I found

[Its Turbo Time]

sounds like what happened to one of my 2's last year, ended up being the coolant temp sensor that broke and put the car into limp mode.

Thats how the car ran while in limp mode, 1st thing you should do is check if you have any codes.

[toy-driver]

The battery is fine, cranks fine. There are also no codes. The first thing I checked were codes. I miss OBDII.

[truaznflipboi]

check your ignition coil ; the same exact thing happened to me ; all i did was went to autozone bought a new coil & bam the problem was fixed . plus it's not that expensive ; doesnt hurt to change it either if that isnt the problem. even a hairline crack on the ignition coil will mess it up.

[toy-driver]

As I said in my first post, brand new coil. So I'm pretty sure that's not it.

[Luni]

What about the ignitor?

[toy-driver]

That's my next guess. There's just no way of testing it, just replace it. Is there a way to test it?

[Luni]

Ohm it out, but it doesnt necessarily mean anything. Ive seen coils and AFMs ohm out and not work either.

[Jimbo246]

i joined just to help your problem so hopefully we can get it solved. I had this same problem in my ae86. I would look for oil or moisture in your dizzy cap, if their is it is as simple as to replacing the gaskets. If their is not, we will work from there.

[Luni]

One thing that happened to me, that I just rememebered, my injector resistor packs were partially unplugged. It caused me to randomly die and not run.

Perform all the following tests to determine what the issue is.

First, test for spark. Easy enough - I just use a timing light for this.

Then test for fuel. Easy enough, just pull the return line off and crank the engine. If it squirts hard, you get fuel. If you dont want to risk a fire hazard, use a rubber hose and route it into a jar or a bucket or gascan or something.

Finally check your compression. If youre pulling 130+ psi in all 4 cylinders, you have enough mechanical timing for your car to start.

If you have all this and you still dont run, its a system related issue. So, at this point you start ruling out sensors and systems with logic.

In my case, since I had spark, compression, and fuel, I pulled a spark plug. I noticed, even though I had fuel I had no fuel on my plug tip, or in my combustion chamber. That told me my injectors were not firing. So I started checking connectors to things that were fuel system related. I found my injector resistor pack had become loose. Plugged that in, and it fired right up.

[Rich3sgte]

your afm may have taken a dump. cuz i was an mr2 meet a month ago and one of the guys cars had the exact same problems as you. and whenever they cranked it up and gave it some gas it stayed on and when he let off it shut off

[toy-driver]

Jimbo246 there was oil in the distributor and oil leaking out of the base. I ordered a dizzy rebuild kit and some other gaskets from Kbox before the car died. I never had time till after the car died to rebuild the dizzy, but it made no difference.

Luni, as I stated in my first post I have spark and fuel, alot of fuel.

Rich3sgte read my first post, I bought a new AFM a few weeks ago after the car died.

That being said, I'm going to run with the idea it is the igniter. I bought a tested igniter today and hope to see if it fixes it out soon. Thanks guys for all your help.

[Jimbo246]

i am confident that i had this same problem but i cannot remember how i solved it. If you feel like it i would recommend getting a new dizzy. That is what i did and that may have been what helped. I think it was the magnetos or something.

[toy-driver]

Distributors are like $250+, I can't really afford that. Especially on a guess.

I replaced the igniter with a known working one and it made no difference. It's ignition related. But NOT ignition wires, spark plugs, cap, rotor, coil, or igniter.

I guess the next thing to do is unplug everything, and clean connectors.

[Jimbo246]

a used one, $60 i believe, or thats how much i paid. I wish i could remember what i had to do to fix it. And just make sure you put the kbox gaskets on and you get your timing right.