# Car wont start, current is present in wires



## ASxa86 (Feb 23, 2006)

1998 nissan sentra 1.6L

Story:
Car was starting fine and then;
I put my car in the garage to replace old brakes and exhaust. My car sat with front end lifted in the air for about 2 1/2 weeks while i waited on bolts etc to finish my brake and exhaust job. Also resealed my valve cover and bought new spark plug wires and installed them. I finally get the car back onto the ground and it wont start.

Attempts:
So first attempt i made was to use starter fluid, nothing. I have now bought a new distributor and rotator button along with new spark plugs. On the distributor I have the wires matching the corresponding cylinder numbers. Used a current tester and there is current present in the spark plug wires. Still wont start. 

I pulled the plugs and let the car sit over night to evaporate some of the gas and this morning made another attempt. Still wont start. 

The engine turns over but there is no spark from what i can tell.

Thought:
So I read up on some of the "wont start" posts and most of them end up obtaining a new ignition coil to fix the problem. Is that what I need even though current is present in my spark plug wires?

My car was working fine before I started working on it. The only thing I messed with was the resealing of the valve cover and buying new wires.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I've been without a car now for 3 weeks I really need some help.


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## ASxa86 (Feb 23, 2006)

UPDATE: I have pulled my plugs and while connect to the wires i turn the ignition and the spark is present. 

So I do have a spark but my car will not start. I'm at a loss now.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Double check how you put the plug wires on the distributor cap.
I'll bet they're 'one off' or maybe 'two off' one way or the other.


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## ASxa86 (Feb 23, 2006)

I have checked and rechecked how i have them hooked up to the distributor cap. I have each one connected to their designated cylinder respectively. 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and 4 to 4. With cylinder 1 starting on the left of the engine.

I even made sure it matched the picture in the hanes manual.

Unless I have read the information incorrectly my wires are hooked up correctly.


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## ASxa86 (Feb 23, 2006)

So had a friend come over who had some experience with his fiero not starting and he suggested the problem might be the fuel pump regulator. After some searching on the forum i came across http://www.nissanforums.com/b14-95-99-chassis/147717-engine-keeps-flooding-itself.html.

I followed the directions in this post removing the fuse and the car started right up then shut off. Put the fuse back in and my car is running fine now!


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

I suspect it was just flooded, very common if you start and move it 25 - 50 ft and shut off, IE when you moved it into the garage.
Chances are if you just held the pedal to the floor and cranked it would have started right up. This tells the ECU to shut of the fuel, and when it starts you release the pedal and all is back to normal.
BTW same thing happened to me last week after working on another brand of car...so it works for other makes as well....


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## PTXer (Aug 31, 2006)

IanH said:


> I suspect it was just flooded, very common if you start and move it 25 - 50 ft and shut off, IE when you moved it into the garage.
> Chances are if you just held the pedal to the floor and cranked it would have started right up. This tells the ECU to shut of the fuel, and when it starts you release the pedal and all is back to normal.
> BTW same thing happened to me last week after working on another brand of car...so it works for other makes as well....


I agree and was going to suggest that too. I've had that happen a few times.


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## camoy (Apr 28, 2004)

ASxa86 said:


> 1998 nissan sentra 1.6L
> 
> Story:
> Car was starting fine and then;
> ...





IanH said:


> I suspect it was just flooded, very common if you start and move it 25 - 50 ft and shut off, IE when you moved it into the garage.
> Chances are if you just held the pedal to the floor and cranked it would have started right up. This tells the ECU to shut of the fuel, and when it starts you release the pedal and all is back to normal.
> BTW same thing happened to me last week after working on another brand of car...so it works for other makes as well....



His car has been shut off way too long for it to be flooded. Plus he pulled the plugs and let it sit overnight to evap any fuel in the car so again not flooded.

To OP you stated you purchased a new distrubutor if this is the case then you already have a new coil as it is part of the distrubutor. Or did you mean to say that you purchased a new "distubutor cap"? If that is the case then you do not have a new coil. You did say though that you are not getting spark are you sure on this? It can be hard to tell sometimes. Next thing I would check is are you getting fuel? If you are then after that I would check your compression numbers. Now since your car will not start and you won't be able to warm the engine up to operating temps to make sure stuff expands and tightens up, you will get numbers that are lower than the minimums. Still they should be no less than 70-80 psi. I know this as I have done compression checks on this motor when it would not start outside in the cold (30-40 degrees). Once you have checked these other two items you have checked the minimum three things one needs for the engine to kick over and idle for a few seconds at least. Get this info and let us know what happens and you can go from there. Also what is the mileage on the engine?


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## PTXer (Aug 31, 2006)

Camoy, we were not talking physically flooded, but an ECU flooded indicator. If you start this car up for say 1 minute and shut down once or twice in a row, without warming up to operating temperature, it has been said the ECU sets a flooded indicator. The car will not fire due to this flooded indicator or whatever. The solution is to crank and hold accelerator to the floor until it fires (sometimes a lot of cranking). This has happened to me a few times with the same solution (and after the same situation). Now if i have to move the car in the driveway for whatever reason, i always let it warm up before i shut it down, and have never had it happen again. If Asax86 ever has this happen again, without a short startup/shutdown, then he has other issues.


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## camoy (Apr 28, 2004)

OK I would like you to show me more info on this as it does not make sense. So what you are telling me is that when the car is started and shut down quickly it then will cause the ECU to set a "Flooded" condition. Once this flooded condition is set the ECU will not fire spark. But the fix to this is to hold the throttle down (this does work in the case of a physically flooded engine as the ECU will shut off the injectors). So if what you saying is true then how come the manufacter choose to cut spark when this flooded condition is set in the ECU, would it not make more sense for Nissan to send the injector shut off signal instead so one doesn't need to hold down the throttle?

As for letting it warm up before shutting it down and not having it happen again, that doesn't really prove that the ECU has this flooded mode. Letting it warm up allows the car to exit open loop idle where fuel trims are much higher than normal to make sure the engine doesn't die in cold weather. Once the car is warmed up it enters closed loop and uses the O2 sensor to determine fuel trims and the car is not running rich. So if you shut it off when it is cold outside before it can warm up to closed loop operation then you run the chance of having too much fuel in the car for it to restart. This is what I think IanH is talking about, if that is the case then the time it sat and leaving the plugs out would have more than cleared excess fuel.

Please if you have more info on this flooded mode for the ECU point me to it as I have never heard of such a thing.


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## PTXer (Aug 31, 2006)

Unfortunately I am not as up on the ECU functions as others on here, so I cannot say I know for a fact the existence of this flooded mode. I just know that for the 10 years I've owned this Sentra, these conditions to be the case. Maybe we are talking about a physically flooded engine, but I agree that simply allowing the fuel to evaporate should clear the issue, but it does not. Allowing the motor to crank without peddle will not clear it, only flooring while cranking has got me going again. I have never had any other ignition/fuel problems with the car.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

PTXer said:


> Camoy, we were not talking physically flooded, but an ECU flooded indicator. If you start this car up for say 1 minute and shut down once or twice in a row, without warming up to operating temperature, it has been said the ECU sets a flooded indicator. The car will not fire due to this flooded indicator or whatever. The solution is to crank and hold accelerator to the floor until it fires (sometimes a lot of cranking). This has happened to me a few times with the same solution (and after the same situation). Now if i have to move the car in the driveway for whatever reason, i always let it warm up before i shut it down, and have never had it happen again. If Asax86 ever has this happen again, without a short startup/shutdown, then he has other issues.


Ha!!!
I've had exactly the same thing happen on both my Nissan's ('97 Sentra, '98 200SX-SE) a few times.
I guess I just kinda ignored it at the time, but it has happened. Had to do exactly what is posted above, except I kinda 'walked' the gas pedal down to the floor. Hasn't happened in a long time and when it did happen, it was kinda random at best.
And I thought I was smoking something...apparently not.


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## ASxa86 (Feb 23, 2006)

Please note that up above I posted that I was in fact getting sparks to my spark plugs. All that was needed to fix my car was to pull the fuel pump amp out of the socket, start the car it ran for about 15-20 sec before shutting off, the put the amp back in. Started the car again and has been running and starting perfectly fine since. I posted a link to this fix. It seems my fuel pump regulator didn't like my car being sat unmoving for 3 weeks.


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