Grant2k

I've searched for similar symptoms but the circumstances of this are making me question what I probably did to cause this.

Here's the backstory. 1992 RS, 305. It's been sitting about a year. It belonged to my uncle and I just acquired it. The last time he drove it he said it was running rough, and he had to keep giving it gas to keep it from stalling. He parked it and that was it. So this week I charged the battery to see if I could start it. It cranked but wouldn't fire. I figured bad gas was the first thing to blame. I took off the throttle body and cleaned it. Yesterday I put it back on and the car fired right up, but ran rough as he described. If I revved it it would run fine, but at idle it ran rough and sounded like it wanted to die, but never quite stalled. I let it idle a while then I turned it off and noticed a little smoke. I looked in the air cleaner and the passenger side fuel injector was dribbling fuel out. I guess this was fuel coming out due to the pressure left in the line since the car had just turned off, but it meant the injector was stuck open. So I figured, easy, just change the injector. So I put a new injector in it today and now it won't start.

The car cranks fine and fires, but dies immediately. I can hear the fuel pump when I turn the key on, and after the car dies I hear the fuel pump wind down. With the air cleaner off I can see fuel spray out of the injector when the car cranks. It fires and sounds like it's running, but just for a split second, and it does this consistently. Every time it's as if it starts, and dies after one second. I cleaned the IAC and I realize it could be any number of other electronic pieces like the ignition switch, CTS, or whatever, but it seems odd to me that it ran yesterday and all I did was touch the injector and now it won't start.

Does anybody have any thoughts of something obvious I might be missing here? I checked all the fuses under the dash. Is there a fuse box anywhere else?

The only other thing I changed when I installed the new injector is that I put the little foam "dust cover" on the bottom of the regulator which I had left off when I cleaned the throttle body. The car is in a dirt parking lot right now and not at my house so it's a pain to work on. Any help is appreciated.

brickyenne

Hello,

It could be a multitude of probable causes. So you must tackle the basics first and if not yet found, move gradually on to the most complex ones. Don't go crazy and change a bunch of stuff in an attempt of a quick fix. It probably happen but you won't learn.

So, if I were you, the first thing to check is the spark plugs. Why? if the injector was leaking fuel, chances are a spark-plug is fouled and wet. Since it's a dual-plane intake, if the offending injector is on the right, check the opposite-side plugs.

Try with a known working plug or with a new one. It's probably a good idea to change them all since you're at it. Do it one at a time so the firing-order doesn't gets screwed (and end up with a new problem on top of the previous one). While unplugging the wires check for the loose ones and check also for corrosion and damage.

Fire up the car and check. Solved? Fine! No? Post back the status. Did it get any better? or is exactly as it was before?

Cheers!

mk1431

[QUOTE=Grant2k;5937965]I've searched for similar symptoms but the circumstances of this are making me question what I probably did to cause this.

Here's the backstory. 1992 RS, 305. It's been sitting about a year. It belonged to my uncle and I just acquired it. The last time he drove it he said it was running rough, and he had to keep giving it gas to keep it from stalling. He parked it and that was it. So this week I charged the battery to see if I could start it. It cranked but wouldn't fire. I figured bad gas was the first thing to blame. I took off the throttle body and cleaned it. Yesterday I put it back on and the car fired right up, but ran rough as he described. If I revved it it would run fine, but at idle it ran rough and sounded like it wanted to die, but never quite stalled. I let it idle a while then I turned it off and noticed a little smoke. I looked in the air cleaner and the passenger side fuel injector was dribbling fuel out. I guess this was fuel coming out due to the pressure left in the line since the car had just turned off, but it meant the injector was stuck open. So I figured, easy, just change the injector. So I put a new injector in it today and now it won't start.

The car cranks fine and fires, but dies immediately. I can hear the fuel pump when I turn the key on, and after the car dies I hear the fuel pump wind down. With the air cleaner off I can see fuel spray out of the injector when the car cranks. It fires and sounds like it's running, but just for a split second, and it does this consistently. Every time it's as if it starts, and dies after one second. I cleaned the IAC and I realize it could be any number of other electronic pieces like the ignition switch, CTS, or whatever, but it seems odd to me that it ran yesterday and all I did was touch the injector and now it won't start.

Does anybody have any thoughts of something obvious I might be missing here? I checked all the fuses under the dash. Is there a fuse box anywhere else?

The only other thing I changed when I installed the new injector is that I put the little foam "dust cover" on the bottom of the regulator which I had left off when I cleaned the throttle body. The car is in a dirt parking lot right now and not at my house so it's a pain to work on. Any help is appreciated.[/QUOTE

do you have vats sound like anti theft

Grant2k

Fouled plugs were my first thought but I would think the gas would have evaporated off by now. I will start by cleaning them anyway because it's an easy potential problem to eliminate.

I've done some reading on the VATS and I kind of have a feeling this is going to end up being the problem. The starting and cutting out is so consistent I am leaning towards electronics being the cause. I checked the VATS fuse and it is good. But is there a way to diagnose this before I go cutting wires under the dash to try and bypass it? It seems simple enough to do but it would be nice to know that's the problem before I spend the time and energy to do it.

I still find it curious that it ran one day, I changed a part that is now working, and then an unrelated problem pops up at the same time. Completely possible with a somewhat neglected 23 year old car that's sat for a year though.

bigal55

iTrader: (1)

You have TBI so looking into the throttle body is easy enough to see if you are getting fuel while cranking. You said you noticed the original injector leaking when you turned the car off, was it enough of a leak to keep the engine running, all be it rough? No leak, no run? VATS will not let you crank the motor unless someone by-passed the starter relay, so probably not VATS issue. Could be ICM not sending signal to ECM so ECM will not trigger injectors. Something to look into. HTH!

Grant2k

No, once the car had turned off the injector was leaking but the car was not running, so the ignition had stopped. If the VATS would stop the car from cranking then that is probably not the issue because it does crank. I'll still try and clean the plugs first and see where that gets me.