On the way home from school today my 85 gsl-se died.. it dident make any noise, it just shut off.. when i tried to crank it, it smoked like no other..(it was blue) so after letting it sit for a few i tried again... i cranked on it for about 5 minutes... and it slowly started up <( it sputterd and choked then fired up).. this is the second time it has done this in a month and it kinda has me worried. please help a newbe out.. thanks!

 

were you in town or on the highway when this happened? Have you checked your fuel filter? If it is clogged it will sometimes spudder out then die, but not sure if it will just suddenly die. Could be fouled out plugs???

 

i was in my neighborhood, so i was doing about 10 or 15.. and the other time it happend i was stuck in traffic.. so its seems that it happens at lower speeds..

ok it just got even worse.. i went out to pull it in the garage and the battery is dead... i jumped it and it is doing what it did before... cranking, smoking but not starting... ahhhhh what tha craaaappp? this is a NEW battery...

i dont know if it related but it has been backfireing pretty bad lately..

 

The blue smoke sounds like it's burning oil, but it could just be unburnt fuel, especially with your battery being dead. If you can get it to run you can just take it to autozone and they'll test your battery and alternator for free. If not the alternator is easy enough to take off and they should have a setup there to test it off the car. Also, do a compression test and if you get it running keep a close check on the oil level to make sure it's not burning any more than it should.

I wouldn't be too worried yet though, it could easily just be a bad alternator. That'd give you weak ignition(hard start), smoke, and backfires from unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust. Also check for any vacuum leaks and stuff like that. Just keep testing different things until you find whats wrong.

 

ok i jumped it off again and it started up just fine.. i let it sit for about 10min and it cranked just fine. i think iam going to do a compression test.. i will put up what i got.. thanks for your help guys!

 

ok on the test i got around 45psi... good or bad????

 

bad, but how did you do the compression test? Was this 45 PSI on the front or rear rotor?

 

I got more than 45 psi on my rear rotor, which is blown.

Ian, your stuff shipped.

 

I had this problem, but for me ALL the electrical shut off, my postive battery wire correded straight through but it sounds to me like your problem could be with the fuel system... How did you do the compression test? Note that piston engine compression testors are different...

 

i unpluged the coil wires and removed the top plug on the front rotor, then screwed the nipple for the tester in.. i had my dad spin it over a few times.. getting around 45psi each time the rotor came around. it started up fine this morning.. but the idle is really rough..

 

My money is on an electrical crash of some sort. Check all your wiring between the Alternator, Battery, and Starter. If that all checks out, then start on your ignition wiring; coils, ignitors, high tension and plug wires. Something's gotta be loose.

If you lost electrical for a couple seconds, car shuts off, then when trying to start it again you are flooding it out (hence the smoke). Sounds like a loose wire somewhere to me.

When it smokes, does it smell like fuel or does it smell like burnt oil?

 

it smells like burning oil..

 

Uh Oh!

 

45 psi is really low. You may have blown a seal. If you're using a conventional compression tester, make sure you take out the check valve. This allows compression readings without retaining the pressure in the gauge, which allows you to dynamically check for 3 evenly spaced spikes per rotor. The needle should bounce up and down without the check valve so you're looking for evenly spaced bounces. Or, with both trailing plugs out, crank the engine and make sure the huffing and puffing is evenly spaced - it should almost sound like a steam engine. If not, I would condemn the engine. You should basically see a minimum of 85psi (5.8 bar) for both rotors with no more than 20 psi (1.4 bar) difference between rotor faces (ex. 85-95-105 could still be normal, though not overly healthy)