Keep in mind that I'm in Ohio and it's winter.My girlfriend has a '98 SL2 with around 150k miles if I remember correctly. About two weeks ago we took it into a Goodyear shop because they had a coupon for their winter package. They changed the oil, rotated the tires, checked the fluids, brakes, and battery, and ran it through a 121(I think)-point inspection, and maybe did some other stuff. He said the car looked good, and, since he didn't try to sell us tired or something more, we figured he wasn't out to scam us. The car ran fine on the way home that night, and it ran fine prior to one morning last week.The weekend before last we drove her car to her hometown to volunteer in a toy drive for needy families. We drove up in good weather, but a snowstorm was forecast. By Sunday evening there was a good amount of snow and ice, and we had to drive back to Columbus. My girlfriend has a long gravel driveway with grass on either side, all of it covered with deep snow. I had to back out of it, but I didn't reverse quite straight enough, and the right side of the car slipped off the driveway and got us stuck.Her mom came out to accelerate and reverse while my girlfriend and I pushed. While we were pushing, the tires spinning, the engine revving, I smelled something. It was a little like something burning. I thought it was the tires against the snow, but I wasn't really sure. I was worried it might've been the engine. After maybe ten minutes we had the car back on the driveway and we made it home.One morning last week my girlfriend went out to start her car to heat it up while she scraped ice. She had to go back inside before she left for work, so she turned off the car (people stealing cars in these situations unfortunately happens). When she went outside to start it again, it wouldn't turn over.This past Friday my car-inclined brother came over and helped us try to troubleshoot.

1. The battery seems to be fine. Everything powers on. The engine turns with an occasional, brief splutter, like it's really, really trying, but just can't start.
2. My brother removed the air filter hose and sprayed air cleaner (I think?) directly into the cylinder/piston thing as we tried to start the engine, and it still wouldn't turn over. He said the spray is more volatile than gasoline, so it should have started.
3. My brother tested each spark plug cable and got a nice shock from all of them. He removed and examined each one, and said none were fouled, and my girlfriend said they're only a couple or so years old. He did say, however, that there was still gasoline on them, so nothing was burning it off.

Regarding the timing belt, my brother said it could possibly be broken, but after some brief research he found online that the '98 models should have chain timing belts, so it shouldn't be the issue. He also mentioned the fuel filter, so we may try a new one. We may try a new battery, and we may try new spark plugs.I read that it may be the neutral safety switch, so when I get home from work I'll try to start it in Neutral.We really can't afford a major fix. We can't even afford to tow it. Before we start buying the cheaper stuff to try, I wanted to see if anyone's experienced this before and/or knows something we can test or try.Thanks.
Edited by: sw2cam

 

We need to define the term "turn over" It sounds to me that the engine is
turning over when you turn the key, but that it is not starting. Is that
what you mean. If you are getting spark at each plug wire, the starter
must be engaging and turning over the engine. If that is the case and
you are getting spark, it's not the timing chain, at least its not broken, at
least not if has a distributor. If it has coil packs, then it might be broken.

Pull a spark plug and turn over the engine. If you put your thumb just
above the spark plug hole, you should feel the rush of air on the
compression stroke. If your not sure, lightly rest you thumb on the hole
and try again. You should feel a vacuum and then pressure. If you don't,
the chain may have broken.

If you feel it a little, the compression stroke ought to blow your thumb
well out of the hole, you may have jumped a sprocket or two.

If you have fuel, compression and a properly timed spark, it should start
right up. You may need to borrow a timing light to determine if the spark
timing is correct.

BTW, in the deep snow, there's a chance you damaged the crank angle
sensor. I'm not saying thats it, but it looks like the best bet, but the odds
are long, it could be a lot of other things.

 

Thanks for the reply. How can I check into the crank angle sensor?


I guess I'm confusing the meanings of 'turning over' and such. When I turn the key, the engine turns nd tries to start, but it just won't. It has a slight splutter from time to time.


(I have no idea why there's Google Analytics markup displaying.)Edited by: GoBucks

 

When I got home, I tried to start it in Neutral. I think it started, though it was weak and I couldn't quite tell since I was inside the car. It definitely wasn't running like normal, but it sounded better. It sputtered out after maybe ten seconds, and then I couldn't get it to start again.After work we're going to try jumping it, but we're almost certain it's not a battery issue. Can a battery have enough charge to turn an engine but not enough to start? The guy at Goodyear supposedly checked the battery, and the car ran fine for about a week later. Maybe it was drained enough in that week, or maybe we really drained it when we were stuck in the snow in her driveway.

Edited by: sw2cam

 

Any other ideas before we spend a fortune having it towed to a Saturn dealership?Edited by: GoBucks

 

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Confused?


Are you saying the car ran good enough to drive around for a week then bptbpptbptbpt!!! It failed again?


Seems as though when you buried it in snow you ruined something, Crank sensors and ignition coils can cause flaky results, on again off again type of frustration. Start with the most likely component to get soaked and even bent during a snow bank incident. Something took on water from melting snow or got deformed in some way during your escapade. I believe the crank sensor is located low toward the bottom of the engine block so make sure the connection at least is clean and if needed have an expert test it.


Whats with the Google web bugs imedding themselves in these posts?</></></></>
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We ended up not towing it. My brother came over before we were going to call a towing company, but I wanted to take one more stab at it. I read about someone trying to start their car with the gas pedal pressed down, so I tried it. After a couple seconds of pedal-to-floor, the engine roared to life, screaming with RPMs. "Interesting," my brother said. I turned off the engine.

My brother got in and tried it, and sure enough it screamed to life like an old boat motor. He got it to idle in Park, and he got out. We noticed the exhaust was very rich with gasoline. His conclusion was that the O2 sensors were going bad, and they weren't communicating well with the fuel pump.

We knew the fuel pump was functional because we could hear it when we turned the key. He said the only reason the engine would be getting too much gasoline is if the O2 sensors were going bad. He told us to also get a fuel filter just to see if it "fixes" the problem. So we got a new filter and new O2 sensors.

My brother replaced the fuel filter and the car runs as normally as we can tell. The exhaust isn't rich anymore, either. My guess is we saturated the engine only temporarily when we had the gas pedal to the floor twice. The exhaust was only rich the two times we did it. Plus the fuel filter was really dirty, so we're thinking that on the morning it didn't start, the fuel filter got too clogged to allow enough gasoline through, and when we started it with the gas pedal down to the floor, we dislodged or broke up the clog.

Anyway, the fuel filters are supposed to be good for 100k miles, and my girlfriend's car has a bit over 145k. We returned the O2 sensors (saved about $140), and my girlfriend is going to try calculating her gas mileage to determine if we should replace her sensors.

For now, though, it seems a fuel filter was all it needed.

(Regarding the Google urchin code, go into your forum Settings and turn off the option about the WYSIWYG text editor. Seems to have done the trick for me.)