97mustanggton18s

A friend of mine has a 2000 Maixma(180k on it) that isnt getting any spark. The crank sensors and cam sensor are good and I am getting fuel. At this point im thinking it can only be the ecu,wiring harness, or anti theft. I dont think it is the anti theft because the light isnt coming on when cranking. If anybody has any thoughts I would appriciate the help.Thanks, John

Empire

the light coming on is a good thing. If it was an immobilizer issue the light would be on.

What was happening before it wouldn't start? Symptoms? check engine light?

you know you're getting fuel as in you pulled a spark plug and it was wet with fuel?

The check engine light is coming on, indicating power at the ECU, yeah?

getting battery voltage to the coils?

the harness on the passenger side, is known to have issues where there is a hard bend in it.

97mustanggton18s

THe car was running good before it all started. His sister went into a store and cam back otu and it wouldnt start, just turn over. The spark plugs are wet with fuel and you can hear the pump prime. There arent any codes in the computer. I have a solus and hooked it up and I can see engine rpm and other inputs coming it.

I read about the the harness was hoping someone can smaybe shed some more light on that issue. The harness has never been removed, and doesnt seem to be broken, but then again I havent removed the wire loom from around it.Just for grins I ruled out it being a key by trying another one...no luck.

I pulled the front three spark plugs and they were soaked with fuel. I put a new one in and layed it across the valve cover to see about the spark. I turned it over a few times and it only sparked once the entire time. I tryd this once with each of the three coils and and didnt get anything on the either.

I also heard about the evaporator leaking on the ecm, so i took a look back there...dry as a bone.

Z350man

This is going to sound REALLY dumb... but loosen and clean the trans bolts and then re-tighten them. (Yes I am serious)

97mustanggton18s

Funny you bring that up, the trans was just out of the car about 300 miles ago due to the front trans seal leaking. Is it common for them to cause a poor ground?

Empire

try the tranny thing.
I saw someone else mention that somewhere else when I was looking for some info on this.
The only other thing that I have found that could be an issue is either the ECU really did just take a crap on you, which "they" say will give you your exact symptoms, but I doubt that is really the issue because you have your scanner and you could tell if the ecu was crap using that.
The other thing that can cause problems is the ignition rely itself. the only people that I have seen say the ignition rely was the problem talk about having these exact same symptoms, but it only happening once in a while, not consistently. but it doesn't hurt to at least rule it out.

97mustanggton18s

Well today I took some jumper cables from the engine to the battery for the ground...still no spark. I cant seem to find where the ignition relay is to swap it with a known good one. I pulled back a small section of the wire loom and didnt see anything with the wiring harness, but then again I didnt inspect it that much.Im still trying to figure out what im going to do as of right now.

Z350man

IF it is the tranny, that will not work. It is a grounding thing with the ecu/engine/tranny. i would loosen the tranny bolts, make sure there is a good contact between bellhousing and block and tight the crap out of them.

Z350man

make sure you did not disconnect anywires when you took the tranny out as there are several you could miss on the driver side that would cause it to lose fire.