Urgent help needed! Car won't start!

[Unicornasaurus]

Ok, so this is the short story. Drove home last night, car turned off at about 2:30. Wake up this morning to go to my school final and car wouldn't start. I could hear it fire every now and then, but no firing as a whole.

I got back home, took out all the spark plugs and checked them..they all have gas on them so it's not a fuel issue(I have about 1/4 tank left). I cleaned them off and put them back in. Still not working. I topped my oil up (just in case..you never know..it was at the E line). I'm in the midst of recharging my battery since all the starter motor work killed it pretty quick.

When I try and turn the engine over I can smell unburnt gas..so it's getting fuel..but it doesn't seem to be sparking properly. After I filled the oil back up, I tried again and it seemed to fire more often.

Could my spark plugs be gone? They were just replaced late last summer.

Any help is appreciated..this is my daily driver and without it I can't do like 90% of things critical to me.

[smithtaka4n1]

Maybe check distributar cap and rotor. Could be many things.

[Unicornasaurus]

I took some pictures of my dist. cap. It looks like it could use a replacing, but I'm not really sure...I haven't replaced one before.

[smithtaka4n1]

That don't look too bad too me. If you can get someone to help you, you can check for spark by removing one spark plug put the wire back
on plug and put the plug onto something metal. Have a friend turn car over and see if plug sparks.

[Damkid]

your dist. cap looks worn but still good, here's what i would do

1. pull a spark plug out, connect the wire to it, touch the spark plug the somewhere grounded, BUT DON'T HOLD IT, and have someone crank it and watch for spark

2. turn the key on to build fuel pressure, pull off the hose to make sure there's fuel pressure

if both are good it "should" run, assuming the timing belt is good

i had almost the same problem a few weeks back where it sounded like it wanted to fire up but it wouldn't, turned out it was the fuel pump relay that went bad

[Unicornasaurus]

Ok so my friend came over, and this is what we did so far

Replaced ign. coil - no go
Replaced ign. coil wire - no go
Took spark plug out and tested - very faint spark.

It's getting gas, but there's just not enough spark. Any ideas?

[Damkid]

did you check every plug

[Unicornasaurus]

Yeah we even tested it on one of his plugs, which are the same type as mine. Still next to no spark.

[MONSOON]

Bad plug wires. They arent that expensive, why not just go ahead and throw a new cap and rotor in it?

[Unicornasaurus]

Ok, got a new cap, new plug wires..and still no go. It's getting fuel because we can smell it..but we can clearly see it's getting no spark.

[MeeMo]

Sounds like it could have jumped time. Had that happen to me once but not with a Festiva. Very similar symptoms. Ran fine, parked it, came back out and it wouldn't fire. Of course, there's always the gloom and doom outlook of a warped head, similar symptoms again...

[geezerstiva]

on our blue festiva (90 L) that little spring on the tensioner for the timing belt broke while driving and ran through the belt and made it jump time.

[Unicornasaurus]

Well it's starting to look like the ICM (Ignition Control Module). I'm hesitant to buy one, because at $175, it's non-refundable. And there's no way to test my current one on there is there?

[Lardon]

Ok, got a new cap, new plug wires..and still no go. It's getting fuel because we can smell it..but we can clearly see it's getting no spark.

Did you check..your Distribuitor module....??? sounds like.

[MeeMo]

Well it's starting to look like the ICM (Ignition Control Module). I'm hesitant to buy one, because at $175, it's non-refundable. And there's no way to test my current one on there is there?

I was just asking about that in a different thread. Parts stores generally test them for free.