Diagnose no start issue

[Jesse]

My Festiva has been in the garage for around a month. I've been doing a lot of work on it. Tonight I finished much of the work and wanted to drive it around town but found I could not get the car to start.

The engine will crank and catch for a second or less, then stall.

I have pulled a plug wire and confirmed I am getting spark. I pulled the fuel line out of the fuel filter and cranked the motor, confirming I am getting fuel. I visually inspected the vacuum lines and could not see anything wrong (and I did not work on the vacuum lines at all except a PCV)

What would cause the motor to crank, catch and ignite very briefly, then stall?

I'm letting it rest overnight and hope it will work tomorrow. Maybe the front wheels being on jack stands for the last 2 weeks had something to do with it and it just needs to rest on level ground, haha.

[shadetree]

Vaf is unplugged or airtube is not connected / torn ?

[GenevaDirt]

mouse made a nest in the air intake?

[David88]

Ignition switch. Try starting it and turn the key back with light pressure as soon as it fires, but dont actually turn it off. I had this happen and I kept trying and trying and at first I didn't realize it, but I kept forward pressure on the key every time ready for the next try. When I gave up and let go to get out, it sputtered a bit and ran. Then I found out wiggling the key around made it run. Contacts were worn out. Euro set me up with a good used Ign with keys and- fixed. Might not be you're issue but worth a shot.

[Jesse]

Vaf is unplugged or airtube is not connected / torn ?

I actually tore this apart and verified the connections inside the air flow meter. Also, it is my understanding that the fuel pump ground runs through this, and I have verified that I am getting fuel. Do you know to to test this?

mouse made a nest in the air intake?

The intake is clean and we tried starting it with no air clean as well.

Ignition switch. Try starting it and turn the key back with light pressure as soon as it fires, but dont actually turn it off. I had this happen and I kept trying and trying and at first I didn't realize it, but I kept forward pressure on the key every time ready for the next try. When I gave up and let go to get out, it sputtered a bit and ran. Then I found out wiggling the key around made it run. Contacts were worn out. Euro set me up with a good used Ign with keys and- fixed. Might not be you're issue but worth a shot.

Thanks, I'll try that.

[ZephTheChef]

See if it will run with the introduction of an additional fuel (carb cleaner or starting fluid or propane or something in the intake). On lots of vehicles, an antitheft problem will result in a vehicle that will crank and start, but only run for a second or so and then die. Obviously you're not having a factory antitheft problem on the festiva, but in the case of those vehicles it's fuel cut so since you have similar symptoms it's worth investigating that possibility. When we put the new engine in my buddy's Aspire, it wouldn't start on it's own, but would run just fine on propane.

After some diagnostics, it ended up being that the fuel injectors were fussy/seized from sitting on that salvage yard engine for god knows how long. We got 3 of them working by tapping on them, had to replace one. That ignition switch idea sounds plausible too. Just for grins you could unhook your battery long enough to reset the computer...I doubt whether that would do any good, but I don't know enough about these cars specifically to say for sure.

[Jesse]

It was the air flow meter (VAF). I was messing around with it and had a hunch I didn't repair it correctly. I bought one at Autozone and figured if it didn't solve my problem I could return it. Plugged it in and the car fired right up.

Now I just need to figure out why its running very lean (timing I'm guessing)