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Need Help ASAP: Car doesnt start

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Old 04-29-2009, 06:55 PM
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Need Help ASAP: Car doesnt start

Okay, this is going to be sort-of a long and dreaded story, so im going to make it a little choppy to get my point accross.

My IACV started to act up, so i drove it for a week. During that one week, i smelled electrical burning sort-of-smell, so i would stop the car and look for the burn but did not find anything. Exactly one week of driving it with the IACV acting up, one last puff of realy strong electrical burning smell came up in the cabin and *fart* the car dies while driving.

Now, since it has died, I've decide to go ahead and replace a couple little things to prep for my supercharger install. The mods are as follow:

-Walbro fuel pump
-Deleted LIM swirl valves
-PF TB upgrade with adapter plates and boring out the IM to match
-OBX Exhaust headers with extended o2's
-Replaced IACV with new Maxima IACV

SO.. a month later i re-assemble everything and go to start it up, it cranks, but doesnt start. I poke around, double checked all of my plugs etc, but there were very few plugs since most were mechanical upgrades. Then, my last resort to check was the ECM, and sure enough my ECM fried.

I sourced the ECM, bought it, installed it, got all my keys reprogrammed to the ECM, and still no start!

The ECM isn't throwing any codes. When i try to start the car, i can hear/see a cylinder trying to fire, but it will immediatly die and just keep cranking until i turn the car off and repeat.

Now, what i need help is all of the possibilities as to what the problem may be that would not throw a code in the ECM.

Please, i need help asap since my car is sitting at the dealer raking up charges. Thanks, V.
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:02 PM
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First check spark. Pull a coil and verify a blue spark from the coil to a ground.. grab a rubber handle screwdriver put the screwdriver in the coil with the metal side of the screwdriver 30 to 40 thousands of an inch away from a bolt on the engine (ground).. About the distance of the gap on your sparkplug.. Have someone crank the engine while you check for spark
If you have spark check fuel.
IIRC We don't have schrader valves on our fuel rail which makes it kind of a pain in the **** to check pressure.
Grab some brake clean or carb clean and have someone spray it into the throttle while you crank the engine over. If it fires off you have a fuel pressure or injector issue..
If you have fuel and spark you have an electrical and/or mechanical issue. My guess is the fuel pump isn't priming since that's a part you replaced.
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:16 PM
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How does the wire harness look? It could be the electrical smell was the ecu, but I'd be curious if anything else was damaged. Might want to get out the FSM and start testing the harness.

S
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Old 05-01-2009, 07:23 AM
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Thanks both, im going to check for both and give an update.
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Old 05-01-2009, 07:34 AM
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The only time I had a problem where the car would crank but not fire it turned out to be the immobilizer.
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Old 05-01-2009, 08:40 AM
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Motor mount

Have to wonder if your another victim of the electronic motor mounts?
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Old 05-01-2009, 07:24 PM
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^ i think i was too along with the IACV, so i cut them off at the same time i replaced my IACV.

Update: I went back to the dealer where my car was today. They ran a diagnosis and blah blah, they think its because of the "new" used ecu i got. Its only 1 very last digit part number difference, and they think that even that 1 difference of a part number could cause lots of problems.

So, i said "how about we keep checking for other possibilities before i order a $700 ecu."

I checked for spark sort-of the crude way. I took a can of TB cleaner and sprayed it through a main vaccuum line while cranking and THE CAR RUNS.. on the TB cleaner anyways.

So I've narrowed it down to it being a fuel issue. Now, heres my problem. The gas tank was on the 1/4 mark when i replaced the fuel pump with a walbro. I thought it was low fuel so i put gas into it and its half a tank now, and it still didnt start.

1.) How can i test to see if my injectors are working?
2.) Is/are there any relays for the injectors?
3.) What else could cause the fuel to not feed into the cylinders?
4.) What necassarily is priming the fuel pump?
5.) What are the chances of the "new" used ecu having different pinouts for the injectors?; Its controlling spark correctly so why not the fuel?
6.) If i provide part numbers on both ecu's, can someone help me out to determine if their interchangeable?

Please and thanks for the help.

Last edited by s1mply_v; 05-01-2009 at 07:26 PM.
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