98 RS starting issues

[PharCry]

First post, and it's a problem... I'll try and explain as best I can, not very savvy under the hood. The car is a 98 RS, zero mods, been running fine for about two weeks (when I picked it up) and about 600 miles. Also I hope this is in the right section, if not I can lock and post in the appropriate area.

I was driving today, probably 80+ miles or so, a few stops to and from my office. I get back to the office, start working on a client's computer for a while, go back out to the car, fire it up, everything seems fine and about 10 seconds later the engine dies out (I hadn't started moving yet). I turn the car off, try and start again, the engine starts chugging when I turn the key but the car doesn't start. I tried a few simple ideas I found like tapping the starter a few times and then trying, giving it gas as I start, but still nothing. Let it sit for about 1 1/2 hours and tried again, nothing. Battery connection looks fine and I haven't had any other problems that would indicate a dying battery.

I got a guy from the shop that's right up the street to come have a look and he said it is def not the starter but an electrical problem more than likely and won't be able to look at it until Monday. So my question: Is there anything I could try before I end up taking it to the shop and having them diag the problem (and likely charging a good bit for it)? From my office there's an Auto Zone just up the road as well so I can go gather any necessary parts. From what I've been reading it could be anything from the distributor to the spark plugs and/or wires to the main relay. So any insight would be great, like I said I'm not that great under the hood but competent enough to follow instructions

Thanks in advance

 

[Theasian]

First check all of your fuses. Under the hood and under the drive side dash knee panel.

Once you check fuses check for fuel. Pop open the gas cap have someone turn the key to acc II that's the position where the radio and air blows out your das vent. Do you hear a whining noise that will run for about 5 seconds and stop. If you hear a noise your fuel pump is priming. Pop off a spark plug and place it by something metal and crank the engine over. See if you have spark. If you don't have either of these replace your main ignition relay. First follow your upper coolant hose to the thermostat housing. You will see a ground of wires and a bolt attached to this. Take that bolt off sand the surface of the thermostat and the ground wire and put it back on. Don't over tighten just til its a little past snug. If tat dosnt work its most likely your ignition main relay also known as the pgmfi main relay. It is under the knee panel under your steering colum.

 

[PharCry]

First check all of your fuses. Under the hood and under the drive side dash knee panel.

Once you check fuses check for fuel. Pop open the gas cap have someone turn the key to acc II that's the position where the radio and air blows out your das vent. Do you hear a whining noise that will run for about 5 seconds and stop. If you hear a noise your fuel pump is priming. Pop off a spark plug and place it by something metal and crank the engine over. See if you have spark. If you don't have either of these replace your main ignition relay. First follow your upper coolant hose to the thermostat housing. You will see a ground of wires and a bolt attached to this. Take that bolt off sand the surface of the thermostat and the ground wire and put it back on. Don't over tighten just til its a little past snug. If tat dosnt work its most likely your ignition main relay also known as the pgmfi main relay. It is under the knee panel under your steering colum.

Sounds like a good place to start, thanks. I will test tomorrow and post back. BTW I forgot to mention in the original post that when I got the car the dealer cleaned the engine bay. Long story short, I took it back after a few miles driving because it was shuddering and turns out his guy had gotten water where the spark plug wires go in :smackself They used an air compressor and blew out everything, took about five minutes and it seemed ok after that. This was two weeks ago but could that be part of the problem?

 

[Theasian]

Possibly but not likely. If water got into a connector you would see problems almost instantly. Good luck

 

[j13]

First post, and it's a problem...

I hate this. Go make an intro of your self...name, location, what's your goal with the car, mods, pictures of your ride ect ect. THEN post problem threads.

 

[tenshi_R]

lol thats a good welcome, what if he has a problem that needs to be resolved. would you go to a shop that asks you to write a 3 page essay about your car before fixing your issue?

 

[tenshi_R]

take the distributor cover off and check there for corrosion. try a set of spark plugs.

but the best thing would be to take it back to the dealer before doing anything and tell them to inspect the whole car because of the initial problem. he might have gotten the water where it wasnt supposed to go and hope that it will be fine.

 

[j13]

Check if the engine is getting Air, Fuel, Spark.

Air filter
Fuel pump, fuel filter
distributor, distributor connections, spark plug wires, rotor ect

lol thats a good welcome, what if he has a problem that needs to be resolved. would you go to a shop that asks you to write a 3 page essay about your car before fixing your issue?

This is a website on the World Wide Web, not an auto shop:thumbs up

 

[PharCry]

I hate this. Go make an intro of your self...name, location, what's your goal with the car, mods, pictures of your ride ect ect. THEN post problem threads.

Point taken. However, I think getting my car to actually start is a much bigger concern right now 8) I'll post up when I get past this as I'm pretty much stranded ATM.

I should be testing in a few hours, gotta hike it back to the office. Thanks again for the starting points everyone.


UPDATE: Fuses, check. Fuel pump priming, check. I can't check the sparks until I get someone over here to give me a hand or two but I did visually check them and here's what I found:

Those are the first plug on the left looking at the engine from the front of the car and the third one over. I'm probably going to go grab a socket at the store to get those plugs out soon, but just at a first glance does that look like oil? More to come...

 

[Hugo]

are the spark plugs covered in oil? put in a thin cloth to see if the spark plugs have oil.

 

[PharCry]

UPDATE: Ended up busy with work today, but so far I've tested each plug wire with a multimeter and they look fine and I finally just pulled one plug out and it's looking a bit grimy:

And inside looked dirty as well:

I did pick up some Bosch +4 Plat plugs on the cheap (found a few other places that recommend them) so I could just clean out the area they plug in and install those. One more question on the plugs though, do they usually come pre-gapped or should I gauge the size beforehand? I've heard to not gauge them due to slight damage possibilities (just saw the back of the package states, "Never requires gapping") and that they should already be the right gap (1.0 - 1.1 according to my under hood label) so IDK.

Sorry to be such a pest, if this doesn't work I'll pop the distributor and check it and the rotor, if that doesn't do it I'll just have it looked at Monday morning. Thanks again for all the ideas.

 

[ixcocoyxi]

i wouldnt recommend bosch plat. 4's.

ngk iridium's would be best for the integ.

 

[PharCry]

i wouldnt recommend bosch plat. 4's.

ngk iridium's would be best for the integ.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind, I think the parts store had some of those.

UPDATE: Well I'm getting spark and the dizzy looks ok no corrosion or anything... Would it be worth finding a replacement ignition relay to try that? So far I've confirmed:

Air filter is fine
Fuel pump is priming
Getting spark

Which leaves electrical problems to most likely blame. Anyone think of anything else besides the relay?

 

[PharCry]

Car's in the shop, will be looked at tomorrow. The only place around here that would even be able to order in an ignition relay is NAPA and it would take them a day to get it anyway. Oh well, I really appreciate the assist from everyone though I just ran out of time and need to get this back up and running ASAP. I definitely learned a lot from this session of tinkering, googling and bugging you all lol.

I'll post some sort of intro thread later on when I get her back, don't have too many plans for mods though but I'll post up. Thanks again