# 1990 240sx won’t start



## TIM40 (Jun 12, 2019)

Well I was driving my car just fine like any other day had it for a whole year and have had no problems at all it was driving good all day no problems at all at the end of the day I was on my way back home on the freeway all of a sudden the dash lights went extra bright then the car lost all power and shut down so I pulled over opened the hood and the negative battery terminal was off the battery it has happened to me a few times before and i would just put it back on the battery and it would start right back up. But this time it was cranking over but wouldn’t start now so I got it towed home tried to get it started no luck so I bought a new distributor and cap new spark plugs / wires , ignition coil new battery. Then installed all of that and even did a oil change and (it started up ran fine) took it out for a few hours then boom happened again lost all power and won’t start it cranks over and now I don’t know what the problem could be 
***Car has: Gas in the tank. Has spark. It is definitely pumping gas. Has air flow. Battery has a charge. All the fuses under the hood are good. Starter seems good because it's cranking. Someone please help me? thanks


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## rogoman (Dec 16, 2004)

In your initial description, you said that suddenly the dash lights went extra bright. This seems to indicate that the alternator was putting out very high voltage; if so, the voltage regulator has gone bad. A properly working charging system puts out about 13.2 to 15.0 volts, but this is a general spec. and the factory service manual should be referenced for the correct charging system voltage specifications for a particular vehicle. A battery should have a static charge of 12.2-12.6 volts. 

What could have happened initially is that the very high voltage fried the "crank angle sensor" that's inside the distributor causing no spark. This time after a "need-less" replacement of most of said components, the alternator once again has put out very high voltage and has possibly fried the ECU; the reason being here is that now you're getting spark which says that the "crank angle sensor" is OK, however the fuel injectors are NOT firing. The injector signal pulses originate in the ECU.

At this point, remove the alternator and take it to a shop to get it tested otherwise you'll be chasing your tail needlessly and just throwing your money down the toilet.

As a side note: Get that negative battery terminal properly fastened. There's no reason for it to keep coming off all the time.


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