The car has been in and moved around a body shop for the past few months but now won't start. The battery was getting weaker but finally put on a long, low charge to bring it back up. Now it spins over great but won't even cough!

There is fire going to the plugs, gas was replaced with 10gal of high test and some Techron. Injectors fire as had an injector test plug on. With air filter housing off, shot starting fluid (ether) in and not even a cough or hiccup!
Nothing has been touched under the hood as a new roof was put on. Usually with compression, fuel and spark, an engine will cough or start, but not this one. Tried using the 124-CD to no avail. OK GURUS, here is your chance to show your stuff...any ideas? HELP

TobiasMB
4 MBs

You say there is "fire" going to the plugs, maybe it is the plugs themselves. if it has been just started to move it around a bit, maybe they are now "loaded up" and need to be either cleaned or replaced.
Gilly

Had pulled a couple of spark plugs to see if wet but weren't. They were dark and looked OK. It was in the plans to do that next after locating the proper plugs. Hard to believe if they were not wet, that you would at least detect a cough if only from just one cylinder. Car was purchased at salvage auction with unknown history so the plan was to do full maintenance once out of the body shop.
Before it went in, it ran like a scalded dog, now a dead dog!

Tobias MB
4MBs

I will check if the fuel system is intact, ..bypass the fuel relay and check if fuel is being delivered with the right fuel pressure. If that's okay, ..then I will concentrate with the ignition system and then go on until that baby coughs.......Always ensure that your battery is always full of charge. A low batt affects the performances of various relays.....

[Edited by rudy on 06-02-2001 at 09:01 AM]

After reading some current posts over the weekend concerning similar situations, I decided to try resetting the alarm system using the door locks. Sure enough, the car started right up. Apparently with the car being moved around the body shop so much and never getting the battery back to a full charge, it died. Also the battery was disconnected a few times which threw the anti-theft system into a tailspin. So now with a full charge, and the doors locks activated, everything is back to normal.

Thought I'd post this to help some other poor soul in the future. Thanks for your posts that helped.

Tobias MB
4 MBs