Help, car died on me...

[cjv998]

Okay, so to start the story, I washed out my engine bay yesterday. I covered the distributor and alternator with aluminum foil before that. I started the car up after I dried everything off, it seemed fine. I drove to class this morning, and to Walmart afterwards, everything was fine. On the way back from Walmart, I'm slowing down at a light, and my car dies. I hear the engine cranking when I try to start it back up, but it won't turn over I guess. I tried getting it jumped, that didn't help. I'm betting I got water somewhere it shouldn't be. One suggestion was water in the distributor. I'm going back to go check stuff this afternoon. Any thoughts?

Oh, by the way, I have the stock airbox on still, so I certainly hope I didn't manage to get water in there.

Update: Took apart the distributor, and everything looks fine there, no water or anything in it. However, there's no spark at the plugs...maybe the coil's bad? (It's a '92, so it's the external coil.) That's next on my list of things to check.

[F20A CB7]

? Why did you put TIN FOIL over the dis/alt

[cjv998]

It's easier to shape than plastic bags, and stays out of the way better than a bulky plastic bag. The idea was it's supposed to keep water out...apparently I didn't do a good enough job of sealing it off though, haha.

[NAiL05]

A bag works just as well with some zip ties. When you wash your motor you want to stay away from overspraying electrical components.

[cjv998]

Alright, another update: when I checked the resistance values across the pins on the coil, one of them didn't match up. Therefore, I replaced the coil...but the car still won't start. My next thought is the igniter (I figure if something was wet, it would've had to work harder to get a spark, until it burned itself out), and if that doesn't do it, I think it's time for a tow truck and mechanic. (Also, I'm going to check the fuses for the heck of it.)

[Leung]

hows the weather out there? hot? it would suck if you just replaced all that and turned out to be your main relay..

just for shits and giggles, check to see if your battery cables are tighten down good.

[cjv998]

hows the weather out there? hot? it would suck if you just replaced all that and turned out to be your main relay..

just for shits and giggles, check to see if your battery cables are tighten down good.

Yeah, it's nice and warm...the clock at the bank we drove by said 97 degrees, and with it being the Midwest, it's pretty humid on top of that.

At any rate, I got the igniter and the metal bracket out, I just need to get the two screws out that hold the bracket to the old igniter. That's nice, because I can bring that inside to work on, where there's shade and AC.

Unfortunately, I can't work on that now because I have quantum mechanics homework due tomorrow, and a class from 7-10 tonight.

[cjv998]

I give up. I replaced the coil and igniter, and checked all the fuses under the hood, and I still can't get it to start up. So now I have to get it towed to a mechanic anyway, like I should've done in the first place. Now my plans for the weekend are shot. Great. Sorry about the rant, but as you can imagine, it's frustrating spending time and money working on something, only to find out that it still isn't fixed.

[d112crzy]

Before replacing anything, you should have checked for spark.

If no spark, since you now replaced the main things on the distributor, take off the valve cover and inspect your timing belt.

It could have snapped.

It happened to me.

[cjv998]

Sorry, thought I mentioned that before. I checked the spark before all that, and I don't have a spark. At any rate, a mechanic is going to look at it tomorrow, and we'll see what happened.

[Fake Thug]

Did you get your plug wires wet? Are they old? If they are old a lil water will kill them. Check the resistance on your wires.

[cjv998]

The wires are about a year old. I didn't check them...they weren't the best wires, could be something wrong with them possibly.

[d112crzy]

yea, check your timing belt before you take it to the mechanic. If its the timing belt, you might still be able to save it.

just slap on a timing belt(do it right tho) and see if thta works.

[cjv998]

Okay, you guys were right...it's the timing belt. So I may have bent valves too, right? I was slowing down at a stop light when the belt broke, so I obviously wasn't giving it any gas.

So my game plan at this point goes as follows:

Get the cb from the mechanic, pay them for towing and labor thus far. (I called em and asked em to stop where they're at, and I'd be picking it up)

Haul the cb to my parents' house with my friend's Bravada, pick up the family's extra car (Jeep Cherokee).

Drive the Jeep until I get around to working on the cb.


I do this, because I don't wanna pay $650 (the mechanic quoted me at about this) for the timing belt (said he'd also do valve cover gasket, and check idler belt and pulley and stuff since the car has 218k miles) and still have a non-running car due to bent valves, which I will not pay to get fixed...that's where I draw the line.

[d112crzy]

Yea, there's a chance you may have bent valves.

You can check by doing a compression test. If that checks out fine, then it may still be saved.