I have a 1991 3000GT VR-4
Recently I was starting out my drive to a campsite to spend some time with friends, when my car suddenly jolted and died in the middle of a busy street. I had enough momentum to turn it into a parking lot safely, but it won’t start. It turns over, the battery is fine, and the fuel pump is fine. However I’m not experienced enough to diagnose precisely what my issue is. I just had the car with a mechanic recently to get my ECU fixed, so I would prefer to diagnose and fix it myself rather than taking it back so soon. Your help would be much appreciated.
Hello Ryan
Welcome to the forum.
I am afraid that none of us are true mind readers. Even the very best mechanics can only take a wild guess but if you would like some proper help, you need to give a little information. Lets start with the basics. Do you have fuel in the tank, is there a spark from the spark plugs when you turn the car over and is there fuel reaching the cylinders (wet plugs)?
Once we have this information, there is a chance that we can point you in the right direction.
Regards
Joe
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Understood. And thank you for your input, I greatly appreciate it.
Today I was going to do some proper testing to give you the details you need. But when I turned the car over it started. I’ve contacted the mechanic that had my ECU rebuilt to see if they will take a look at it. But because it’s currently in working order, they told me to wait to see if it acts up again. Until then I can only wait and see. As soon as it dies again, I will take a look at the spark plugs and make sure that fuel is reaching the cylinders, and I will tell you how it goes.
Thanks again Joe
Hi Ryan
Same problem my mechanic could not get it worked out after realizing it wasn’t ecu. The car would run for a bit at his shop the just stop. He did all the usual checks, fuel system, injectors, etc. according to him he discovered the timing tensioner needed replacing. That seemed to do the trick. But you never know what in can be in these cars.
Thank goodness my mechanic is an old high school friend and has a great shop.
To run, a car needs 5 things: 1) Fuel- check pump (can hear it hum when turning on ignition), fuel lines for leaks, fuel filter for clogs, injectors for clogs (listen with big screw driver for clicking when starting), can check the fuel rail for leaks and adequate pressure. 2) Air- check for holes along the way to the intake, air filter for clogs, MAF sensor if its clean 3) Spark- check battery and connections, alternator, distributor and wires 4) compression - do compression test or relative compression test to check the engines ability to compress the fuel air mixture 5) Timing - check the timing belt since you said your ECU was just serviced.
Check this video out. Chris fix is awesome!
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