Mysterious no start after carpet pull
 

Hey Guys,

Im throwing this out hear before I try and diagnose the usual culprits of a Cranking, but no start issue.

As mentioned in a previous post, in the process of re-doing my carpet, I discovered some rust on the rear driver-side seat tub. In the process of putting the car back to a drivable state to get to the body shop I went to crank it up and....wor, wor, wor.....no start.

My first thought was, "Oh, the DME came loose!". Checked it, re-placed it...Still nothing.

Ive checked all the grounds under the drivers seats, and put all of the logical things back in place, but still nothing. No sputter, no coughing, no sign that fuel is being delivered

Because the car was firing up perfectly prior to this project, I'm almost positive that its something I did. Any ideas of what it could be?

Let me begin by stating I know absolutely nothing about EFI, so what follows is just a general suggestion.

Tell us, exactly, what you have done to address this, so far. You mention "no sign of fuel," but how did you determine that? Have you checked for spark? You "checked" the DME but what exactly did you do--pull the relay? Did you test the relay?

The above may sound petty, but we (others with direct knowledge, really) only have the information you provide. The issue is likely something simple, but we need to know what has been done, exactly, to diagnose. You need to get down to the basics for a no-start (as opposed to a no crank which, to most, means the engine is not turning over via the starter in an attempt to start.) Spark, fuel, compression, if all three are in spec, you will get a start. You can likely eliminate compression as a cause, but spark (including timing), and fuel are under suspicion. Tells us how you eliminated either one as a cause and that will make the task much easier and direct.

Your right, I mis-spoke. It is cranking (turning over) but not starting.

And to be clear, I haven't ruled anything out. Just trying to make sure there wasn't an obvious interior connection I was over-looking, in the midst of getting drivable to the body shop (Perhaps wishful thinking)

So here is the basics of what has been done so far...

While pulling the carpet, I removed the seats including disconnecting the power seats, rear sound deadening, removed the E-brake/de-frogger housing, de-frost indicator light, and all the obvious trim that goes with a carpet pull. I also dis-mounted the VDO box under the radio, to tackle another problem.

The electronic hardware underneath the drivers seat, including the DME, I kept in place.

I checked the DME simply by swapping with two others that were brand new (Not sure if I would call this a test), but I can hear it "click" when I turn it over.Fuses all look good.

My next move was going to be to get some starter spray in the intake to see if its a fuel issue when I'm back in the same time zone as the car. lol

Well, having returned to the car this evening I decided to recheck the connections a ground wires of everything under the seat. With no luck I went back to fuse box and re-checked all the fuses and connections. Turns out the harness that goes to the #6 fuel pump fuse had a bad connection.

Now I feel better knowing my handy work had nothing to do with it!