Idiot Dumb Person Problems

[tcp88]

The piece of plastic the tucks underneath the upper camshaft cover? It was totally missing. I still have it though. Just forgot to put it back.

[dnguyen1963]

No, it's the aluminum bracket. Look at the pic in the attached link. The hoist is hooked up to the crane.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18399007&page=4

[tcp88]

Oh no, that was installed.

I had some trouble with the rotor and the dust shield that goes in there, after stripping one of the hex bolts I got frustrated and cut the dust shield out and I remember thinking I was not confident about the whole area (rotor and distributor); fucking idiot me.

The CPS and the sparkplug sensor were unplugged/switched when the rotor broke so I think that was what caused it, I've got them in the right place and I have a new engine management relay on the way just to cover my bases there.

[tcp88]

Well that wasn't it. Back to trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

[tcp88]

Bump because I'm stumped.

Changed rotor and cap,
Still no spark, but smells like fuel at plugs so injectors are opening(?),
Tested coil, no power draw, 1ohm,
Swapped in friends msd coil, still no draw, also 1 ohm, still no spark,
Timing appears to be good (had a local e30 guru look at it, says it appears fine, may I add that was without taking the balancer off to double check the tdc on the crank so I'm skeptical there, but I know it at the very least isn't wildly off, a tooth or two at most so it should at least start),
Battery at 11.8,
Replaced engine management relay,

I see a lot of troubleshooting says to check the dme pins. I would love to do this but I have no idea what that even means.

The DME is the ECU, right?

I apologize if a lot of these are very stupid questions. I assume I'm having a very stupid problem.

[ahlem]

Check the gap where your CPS picks up the signal from the "gears" on the front pulley.
Check the resistance of your CPS per the Bentley manual at the plugs you showed in your earlier picture. Charge your battery. Does your idle control valve hum when you turn the key to start?

[tcp88]

ICV was humming but now no longer.

No voltage pull on ICV connector

Just tried jumping battery, no fix

No continuity between pins 15 and 7 on c101

[IceWhite]

Bump because I'm stumped.

Changed rotor and cap,
Still no spark, but smells like fuel at plugs so injectors are opening(?),
Tested coil, no power draw, 1ohm,
Swapped in friends msd coil, still no draw, also 1 ohm, still no spark,
Timing appears to be good (had a local e30 guru look at it, says it appears fine, may I add that was without taking the balancer off to double check the tdc on the crank so I'm skeptical there, but I know it at the very least isn't wildly off, a tooth or two at most so it should at least start),
Battery at 11.8,
Replaced engine management relay,

I see a lot of troubleshooting says to check the dme pins. I would love to do this but I have no idea what that even means.

The DME is the ECU, right?

I apologize if a lot of these are very stupid questions. I assume I'm having a very stupid problem.

Is that the correct battery voltage or a typo?

[tcp88]

Jumped it and it was running at 12.6 across, still nothing. Just replaced the cps, still nothing.

Still not able to get check engine codes from the five pedal stomp.

Opened up cap and and the rotor was off 180 degrees (on the triangle mount), fixed that, still no luck.


We discovered that the coil wasn't getting power and assume thats whats what. New CPS isn't exactly on to spec per say, as such that I had to drill out the old bolt because it had been stripped to a circle.

[dnguyen1963]

Battery should read 12.6 at rest and 13.6 at running. Either you have a bad volt meter or your alternator is about dead.

[tcp88]

The battery sat through a three month tcase replace/rebuild and is now on week 4(?) of my ill-advised timing belt/drive belt change so yeah.. probably dead or near dead.

Alternator should be fine. I think now we just need to trace hot from the ignition to the coil and figure where the open is. We jumped power to the coil last night and still had no luck on spark (iirc) at any rate we jumped power to coil and still no start.

Can't remember if I specified but the OBC is out too.

[dnguyen1963]

If your car is running and you can measure only 12.6 V then I would check the alternator. The voltage should be at 13.6 V or higher with a working alternator. When trouble-shooting electrical problems, make sure that the source of electricity (battery & alt) is in proper condition. Otherwise, you could be chasing ghosts.

[tcp88]

I haven't been able to get it to start because I'm not getting a spark, would an alternator cause that? I've jumped it and tried to start it at 13.7v

Updates,
Getting an ohm reading of 19-20 on ecu pins 47 and 48 against pin 2 (ground)

I don't know if this helps but I do not hear the fuel pump kick on

[tcp88]

Update.

Now it no longer turns over.

[tcp88]

I don't know if anyone was curious but the problem turned out to be the CPS for the no start and a bad relay/blown fuse for the no power.

When I drilled out the old CPS the new one didn't seat correctly.