I have a mystery that is pretty much driving me insane. For anyone that likes a puzzle or a least a brain smack please read on and PLEASE try to help.

90 TII Stock minus Catback and BOV.

Problem: Car will not start. Cause: No spark from coils.

Checks:

CAS have been checked
Coils have been checked
ECU have been checked
Relay's (by the master cylinder) have been checked
Wiring from ECU to Coils and CAS have been checked
Spark Plug Wires (checked and New)

WTF am I missing????
My friend thinks the alarm might have something to do with the lack of spark. From the FAQ's that I read the system can not be disabled. Any suggestions? Please??? Tired of car-pooling with someone bragging about their crappy subaru.

Thanks,
Rey

 

Change thread title to oil problem and probably get a bigger response, i honestly have no idea.

 

check your grounds?

 

Title edited to actually reflect the question.

And why do you think you don't have spark. How are you testing?

 

Pulling a spark plug out and holding it to a ground & cranking engine. Grounds: the one by the computer has been checked and the one underneath the intercooler (to the engine)has been checked.

 

I know I had sparks FROM my coils, but for some reason wouldn't start my car. I put a new*used* trailing coil in there, and the car started up, albeit it was tough...try testing different KNOWN TO WORK coils?

 

I tried my coils, CAS and ECU on a different TII and they all worked fine. Tried his cois on my car and I still don't have any spark. Is there any different way to test for spark??

 

check the AFM. unplug it and try to crank the car. this happened on my car. no spark for anything. stupid afm.

 

How much voltage at the black/yellow wire in the small, two socket. WHITE plug at the lead coils?

Engine fuse good? Both EGI fuse good?

Alternate method? Take plug off a lead spark plug and lay it next to one of the strut studs. Pull the cas out with it connected to the harness. Key to ON, Spin the cas lower gear. Spark should result. Best to do this with a spare cas if you don't know too much about cas's.

 

Disconnected the MAS and cranked--Nothing..

I'll check the voltage. Both Fuses??? I know about the one in the 30 AMP in the main fuse @ engine bay. What other one is there??

 

I have 0 V w/out the key ignited & 12.0 V with key on.

 

Could be bad wiring in one of your harnesses.

In my experience my 7 had no spark either and I found out there was a bunch of wires that were grounded together (burnt/melted together) and alot of these wires were cut and put into the fusebox for power (very ghetto if u ask me). This could be the case with yours as well.

I had to go ahead and replace the whole main wiring harness in my car to fix the problem and it wasnt exactly the most fun job.

Everyone else , is there a possibility that it could be anything else like a relay or something to that nature ?

 

ENGINE fuse located in the interior. Picture of the fuse box in the FREQ ASKED QUESTIONS at the beginning of this site.

ENGINE fuse powers the Main Relay which in turn powers the coils and other major items like the Fuel Pump. If the fuel pump runs with the fuel pump check connector jumpered, then the ENGINE fuse is good.

 

Engine Fuse is in good condition and the fuel pump is working. I am thinking of removing all the power steering stuff just so I can get a good luck and possibly remove the harness from that side. I did realize that the car has a short somewhere with the battery (pos) cable to the starter. This still baffles me, so I really hope I can find some kind of cable meld together. Otherwise I am out of ideas and close to out of patience.

Will continue to update as things get crossed out!

Thanks to all that are trying to help!

 

Possible dead ECU. I mean, if the Main Relay is pulling in and powering the Fuel pump, then there should be 12v on the small, white, two socket plug at the lead coil assy. On the black/Yellow wire. Do not mess with the OTHER wire in that connector.

So. You have no 12vdc on that black/yellow wire. Well, there's no connector b/t the Main Relay and that black/yellow wire in the two socket, white connector.

So either there is no power at the main relay on the Black/Green wire to feed the black/yellow wire at that relay. Pull the main relay four pin plug apart and see if there's 12v on the black/green. If there is, then just omit the relay and jumper a wire b;t the black/green and black/yellow and also another jumper b/t the white/blue and the black/white.

NOW you HAVE to have power at the black/yellow wire at the small, two socket, white connector at the lead coil assy. The car should start and spark with these two jumpers.

Please download and look a the wiring diagrams in the fsm. The EGI and EMISSIONS page. You will see what I talk about. gone

EDIT AND DISCLAIMER: That was for a series four. I don't have the patience and time to see if the series five wiring at the main relay is the same . Go look and see. It probably is.

 

Hailers,

Thanks for the note. I understand and will do my homework prior to loading up circuits. Thanks again and I will keep this going till the B#$#@ starts!!!

 

HAILERS:

im been helping rey871 all this time and this is what i found, theres power going to everything

ecu
coils
pump

everything!!!.

i check continutidy or whatever is spelled. and all the wires are fine

i even put all his stuff

coils
cas
ecu

on my car and they worked fine no probelm. i even drove it with his stuff make sure that it was working fine

now my question that i found with the security sistem. my car when the car is on position or running the security light is off, the only time i seen the security light on is when i shut the doors with locks and is for 30 sec. his car the security light is flashing when the key is on position. and when you locks the doors it doesnt light up at all. that why im asuming is the security light. is theres any way i can disable it or disconect it?

i have the FSM and everything it was done with it and multimeters test light. that why he been asking because this is been a 3 years problem and last time it ran the car ran for like 1-2 mins and shut off

thanks
eddie

 

hailers or anybody please help here. and please read the post before putting any stupid coments, because me and rey have check all of it and i believe is the security sistem. i just wanna confirm is that before i keep going with it. is theres any way i can disable it or bypass it to see if runs. we have no spark or injection and is not the ecu is been tested on anothere car and is fine

 

I'm real weak on theft protection and even weaker since you have a series five with the theft built in the CPU. If it were a series four I'd say maybe disconnect the plugs from the Theft Unit and see how it goes. With a series five, you've no theft unit. Maybe disconnect the CPU?????? Sort of a Sad Guess.

 

Well, I looked at a series five wiring diagram. So. Pull the four socket plug off the MAIN RELAY.

Get two pieces of spare wire.

Use one piece of wire to jumper b/t the Black/White wire and the White/Blue wire in the plug that attached to the MAIN RELAY plug.

Use the other piece of wire to jumper b/t the Black/Yellow wire and the White/Red wire.

Now go start the car and see if it runs. I don't see how any Theft protection could mess that up.

The even better idea is this. Find a spare CAS. PUll the plug off the cas that is on the engine and install it on the spare CAS.

Key ON. Sparkplug wire on the fender near a strut tower bolt/stud. Spin the lower gear on the spare cas. Spark should happen at the sparkplug wires end.

Try that with the MAIN RELAY with the jumpers and then without the jumpers in place (main relay connectors connected up normaly).

If no spare cas, remove the one from YOUR car. Align the front pulley timing mark with the fixed pointer first. Then remove the black top cover off the CAS. Take note of where one of the two top pointers is opposite some fixed place in the cas. Write down just where. Then remove YOUR cas and do what was suggested above. After checking the other car, re-install YOUR cas in it's bore and make the top pointer match where you noted earlier. Cinch down and your car should be as it was before. You might have to turn YOUR cas's body to get the pointer to match where it was before or even restab the cas and try again.

NOTE: The white/red and the white/blue wires mentioned above should both be HOT whether or not the key is to ON or not. They both come from the EGI fuse in the engine bay. What your doing using the jumpers, is bypassing the ignition switch for power to the coils/ECU/stuff.

 

Hailers, Thanks will try that out tomorrow. Just to catch you up. Not only am I not getting any spark but also I am not getting any fuel into the engine. Fuel pump is working, but for some reason the injectors are not squirting. I checked and triple checked all the grounds (thanks to ken from megasquirt faq for the attachment) and they are straight. We are currently checking all the independent pins that plug up to the CPU for appropiate voltages (so far everything is powered and working properly). WTF...someone please shoot me!

 

try maf sensor. I had a similar problem before not getting the fuel injected, which was due to a bad maf. For spark, check for power and follow from there. A factory service manual would be good, just search google or yahoo for it. There should be one online for free

 

okay latest and greatest. The wires were bypassed as described above and using the spare CAS there still was no spark. I could however hear the fuel pump engage once I started to turn the gear in the CAS. However there was a little swoosh (don't exactly know how to describe it) from the turbo area. I tought maybe it might have been one spark that lit up some left over gases on one of the chambers. not sure. going to test the cpu and some cables to make sure nothing burned up. we'll see.

Any other ideas??

 

Yeah. Get a digital METER and with the wires jumpered (main relay), pull the white, small two socket connector apart at the LEAD coil assy. See if the METER shows batt voltage or not. It's the black/yellow wire on that connector that your looking at. Don't mess with that other wire.

If there is 12vdc at the black/yellow then there's a couple of things to do. First pull the plug off the ECU and ohm out the wires going to the cas. Ohm them out FROM the ECU.

If they ohm out, then the cheapest next thing to do is to make sure the ECU two ground wires are bolted to the rear rotor housing. To the left of centerline on the rear rotor by about two inches or so.

I mean, the cas spins and puts out a voltage TO the ECU. The ECU uses this information to pulse a gnd signal to the coil ignitors AND the fuel injectors. IF you have a spare cas and connect it to the plug from the cas on the engine, and have the key to ON, and spin the cas bottom gear, the sparkplugs should spark and at the same time the primary injectors should click. I can hear fuel injectors click doing this as the cas gear is spun, so you should have been able to hear it also. You did not hear it. Means to me either the cas wires are open to the ECU (not probable at all) or the ECU's two gnd wires on top of the rear rotor housing are not grounded OR the ECU died (no ref voltage output).

If your not wanting to pull the intake off to look for the ECU gnd wires, then an alternate is to go to the ECU and follow the BLACK wires up the harness for a few inches where they are spliced together and add a gnd there (maybe just a wire with two alligator clips. One on the splices and the other to a good gnd like the studs that hold the ECU in place. This would be temp to see if spinning the cas would now cause spark).

One sure way to see if a ECu is dead, is go to the pressure sensor and pull it's plug off. Put a meter on the brown/white wire in the plug and see if there is approx 5vdc when the key is to ON. IF you see just say, 2.5 vdc...........ain't no damn good. Something close to 5vdc=good ECU.

I don't see how it could be anything else. So look for the 12v on the black/yellow wire at the two socket, white plug at the LEAD coil assy.

 

Hailers,

Okay. Lead Coil- Black/Yellow wire from 2 wire plug---12v

4 wires from CAS have been ohmed out. Green wired ohmed out w/ the same pin as red.

BTW when turning the CAS gear with the two wires in place I can hear a click and a humming that I assume are the injectors. No spark though.

I will pull off the grounds from under the manifold tomorrow. Just to double check them.

ECU voltage at Brown/White wire @ pressure sensor---5V

I swear I'm really dumbfounded with this puzzle. If my buddy comes this weekend I am going to pull off the wiring harness out and physically go inch by inch as a way to eliminate any short theories.