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WILL NOT START----HELP URGENTLY

C

colinham

New member
Have not had my 1989 S2 long, has been running perfectly so far, then a slight what felt like a misfire which then cleared itself. Now I cannot start the car, fuel,battery ok. Checked and cleaned the plugs,dissy cap and rotor are new and fully checked. Put in new DME relay but still no joy car turns over OK just will not fire. All fuses seem Ok. I,am at my wits end as yet do not have a service manual. Can you guys help Iam desperate as I need the car for work any ideas please.
Colin
 
Check the fuel pump fuse in the aux fuse box. Had same trouble with mine. I replaced the DME only then to find it was the fuel pump fuse and although on first inspection it looked ok it was infact corroded. Replaced it and it fired straight away.
 
there is a full troubleshooting guide on Clarkes garage (link on here somewhere)
I had a similar problem recently turned out to be the injectors getting gunged up threough lack of use. Its all the detergents and cpra they put in fuels these days.

1. Make sure that you have fuel flowing to the fuel rail and the pressure relief valve is working ok.You can do this by removing the hose at the end of the fuel rail putting it into a jar and cranking over with the rotar removed . (Watch your eyes as the fuel is highly pressurized)
2. make sure that the injectors are getting pulsed on turning over. Remove a lead to an injector and stick a multimeter on it
3 check you have a spark at the plugs when she's turning over .Remove a plug and check it has fuel on it.

You should be smelliing excess fuel and seeing it on the plugs if the fuel delivery system is working properly.

I wouldn't advise mucking about with too much else and replacing things because its unlikely anything will have just failed due to lack of use.

If you have a spark at the plugs when she's turning over then its likely to be the fuel delivery .

Other things to check is that the cable hasn't come off the crank position sensor
 
Alright Colin I have owned a fine J reg S2 and really loved it pal , but it soon became a love hate relationship as about 2 months after I bought the car the link chain between the two camshafts snapped and stripped the teeth off the cams. so as you can imagine it cost me a small fortune to put right again . Firstly if you have any service history then check when the S2 had the timing belts and the chain and chain tensioner replaced , If you read up on the S2 the cam chain tensioner slides are the achilles heel of the S2 if over looked . You might have jumped a tooth on the chain so slight misfire then it wont start ! Or you might have a fault with the ECU bad earth sometimes blow's them . First thing I would check is the timing and I would remove the cam cover and check the condition of the chain , that's if you have no service history , the top slide on the tensioner is only around £5 but if over looked ends up costing a small fortune ! Once that has been checked then move on to spark , make sure you are getting a good spark from every plug , then check fuel make sure there is fuel getting to the rail , if you have all these three item bang on then possible ECU or more tech fault may need diagnostic checks at a good Porsche specialist or a dealership if you have deep pockets ! Best of luck and please share your findings , Best regards J
 
I think it's bit of a stretch to get from not starting to stripped cams. Possible I guess, but i'd stake a far wad of cash it isn't the problemm and I definitely wouldn't start by checking the cam chain.

Find out first if it has a spark (as that's easiest), then if it does is there fuel. I bet it's one of those two.
 
Agree with Fen but the less-optimistic side of me would be removing the cambelt cover.... [X(]
 
Try checking the earth point that conects the gearbox to the bulkhead. It can be found right at the back of the engine looking down from the top. Mine worked loose + the car developed a intermittent missfire, then it wouldnt start.. I even went to the lengths of replacing the starter motor, only to find this earth strap was loose....[:mad:][:mad:][:mad:][:mad:][:mad:]. Hope you get it fixed.
 
My s1 did this, i replaced the dme, it didnt work at first, took at least fives minutes of turning it over for 20 30 second, stoppin for a minute, and repeating until it fired, really at first, misfiring etc, but it eventually got going and has been perfect since.
I had to be pretty persistant though. I was convinced it had to be this.
At the time it was also suggested to look at my AFM.
Good luck
 
ORIGINAL: Jonny B

My s1 did this, i replaced the dme, it didnt work at first, took at least fives minutes of turning it over for 20 30 second, stoppin for a minute, and repeating until it fired, really at first, misfiring etc, but it eventually got going and has been perfect since.
I had to be pretty persistant though. I was convinced it had to be this.
At the time it was also suggested to look at my AFM.
Good luck
Click to expand...

exactly the same as mine. It was nothing to do with the DME though. They either work or not .They don't start working after cranking for a few minutes.
I am convinced it is due to the injectors.With regular normal driving the injectors get hot enough to keep themselves clean and fully operational.
With mine I had to keep the starter on continuously even when it was starting to fire on 2x cylinders and keep prodding the accelerator pedal until it finally cleared itself and ran on 4x cylinders.

If I leave the car unused for more than 3x weeks it does the same thing again.
If I run it every w/e it starts and runs fine.

The first thing one should check on a non starting car is spark if you have a spark then you should check the fuel delivery . Its pointless going off on a wild goose chase taking cam covers off and replacing fuel pumps and filters etc until you have established these 2 fundamental items first.
Otherwise you won't know if you have made the situation better or worse.



 
We had a non-starting problem with our S2. It turned out to be a tempurature sensor. It's located at the front of the cylinder head, just below the top radiator hose take off. Ours has a blue insulator. It 'tells' the ECU what the water temp is, so, if it's not working the ECU will not enrich the mixture enough to allow a cold start. I did once fool the ECU by slackening the intake tube and squirting Easy Start into the gap whilst cranking, the engine started and once running was ok until the next cold start. Check the connecter (gently prize back the wire repaining clip) and consider replacing the sensor- not expensive and easy to do, with minimal loss of coolant.
 
I shouldn't expect the OP to come back anytime soon. Colin only posts once every 3 months [:(][:D]
 
recommend you check the coil spark through the HT lead (carefully so you dont get an unfortunate hair do!) if you have a spark at the coil then check that you have a spark at the plug leads - if not it is normally the resistor in the rotor arm - so replace the rotor arm if this is the case. if you've got no spark at the coil check the connections for the Hall Effect sensors (crank angle sensor). These 2 have caught me out loads of times.
kevin - emc motorsport [:)]
 
Well it was 10 o clock a night so hopefully he wasn't still at work!

Nice to see another specialist adding to the forum [:)]
 
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