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And it will not start! OK here's the story:
Last year, I drove the car from Missouri to California with no problems. It ran great! I let the car sit for about a week in CA while visiting some friends. On my way back to Missouri, I notice sometimes, I would have to fluctuate the accelerator pedal while holding the brake pedal to get it into drive without stalling the engine (it's an automatic transmission). This only happened sometimes, other than that, it ran great. No trouble codes/engine check light ever came on. I stopped at a rest area near the Arizona/New Mexico border overnight. The next morning, I started the car up and it ran great but then I realized I wasn't ready to leave so I then turned off the engine, few minutes later I tried to start the car and it would not start at all!!! It would act like it was going to start but just wouldn't do it.
I turned the distributor and it seemed to help but just would not start. The car has 119,000 miles on it. The timing belt has been replaced before the trip and I checked it just to make sure it had not slipped time and it was fine. The car is getting fuel. The car seems to have sufficient fire. However the odd thing that happens is I can clean the plugs and after cranking the engine over a short time, it would have black carbon soot on all four spark plugs. The soot is dry. Although it does carbon foul all the plugs. The only thing I can think of would be the EGR valve is not working properly. I did remove it and checked it with a vacuum pump and it seems to be working properly and no carbon blockage. I'm thinking maybe, the electronic part on the EGR might be failing?
I ended up towing the car back to Missouri with a U-Haul truck and a dolly. Had to borrow some money to get the car home. Between what I spent on the car and getting it ready for the trip, I have a small fortune tied up in it. Definitely more than the car's worth. That's one reason, the car has sat for about a year and now have some money to spend on the car if I were to fix it myself. One consolation is, my wife really loves the car so here we go again. I think, once I figure out the problem, it will be a dependable car again.
Any information would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike & Abby
Last year, I drove the car from Missouri to California with no problems. It ran great! I let the car sit for about a week in CA while visiting some friends. On my way back to Missouri, I notice sometimes, I would have to fluctuate the accelerator pedal while holding the brake pedal to get it into drive without stalling the engine (it's an automatic transmission). This only happened sometimes, other than that, it ran great. No trouble codes/engine check light ever came on. I stopped at a rest area near the Arizona/New Mexico border overnight. The next morning, I started the car up and it ran great but then I realized I wasn't ready to leave so I then turned off the engine, few minutes later I tried to start the car and it would not start at all!!! It would act like it was going to start but just wouldn't do it.
I turned the distributor and it seemed to help but just would not start. The car has 119,000 miles on it. The timing belt has been replaced before the trip and I checked it just to make sure it had not slipped time and it was fine. The car is getting fuel. The car seems to have sufficient fire. However the odd thing that happens is I can clean the plugs and after cranking the engine over a short time, it would have black carbon soot on all four spark plugs. The soot is dry. Although it does carbon foul all the plugs. The only thing I can think of would be the EGR valve is not working properly. I did remove it and checked it with a vacuum pump and it seems to be working properly and no carbon blockage. I'm thinking maybe, the electronic part on the EGR might be failing?
I ended up towing the car back to Missouri with a U-Haul truck and a dolly. Had to borrow some money to get the car home. Between what I spent on the car and getting it ready for the trip, I have a small fortune tied up in it. Definitely more than the car's worth. That's one reason, the car has sat for about a year and now have some money to spend on the car if I were to fix it myself. One consolation is, my wife really loves the car so here we go again. I think, once I figure out the problem, it will be a dependable car again.
Any information would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike & Abby