I searched and could not find anything nearly close to the problem I am having...

Anyway, so my car has had a slight exhaust leak for a bit so it has carbon around the exhaust side of the engine bay, if that would effect anything.

So I parked the car last Sunday, and started to carpool to work, it got really cold tuesday-friday, like downwards of -9 which is odd for this area, we got 10 inches of snow..anyway, as a precaution i went to go and try to run the car for a bit thursday when it was during the warmer part of the day...nothing. car turns over, i smell fuel and hear the fuel pump, and fires randomly, but does not actually start. This leads me to believe it is an ignition issue and not a fuel issue. i have been trying ti start it every day since friday, turning it over about 3 times hoping for something, and some times it doesn't fire at all it just turns over...

is there anything that could have happened? all of the gauges work so it is not a crank sensor, since it reads the rpm's, i pushed on the spark plugs with my hands to make sure they were at least tight, i was wondering what wires/sensors or anything i should poke at, or if its the coilpack itself, i just want a feel to see if anyone is knowledgeable about this condition

any help would be GREATLY appreciated

 

Replace spark plugs and enjoy.

 

I'll check...but the ones on it are not even a year old..maybe 8 months tops. I'll check to see if they are fouled at all.

 

Plugs on a rotary can foul within a week if the conditions are right. The extreme cold starts do not help the situation. Especially if the car is just started and left to idle for a few minutes before being turned off. Trust me, spend the $30.00 and replace your plugs, it takes less than 15 minutes.

 

i ran to the store and got the correct size socket yesterday, when it warms up a bit i'll pull them, hopefully this weekend

 

pulled all of the plugs today..they were pretty fouled..a couple of them had some signs of detonation with chunks missing..small ones. i cleaned the plugs off hoping it'd at least get the car to run, and it turned over and was close to running but never did. then the battery died...it's in need of a new battery anyway. i think it's about time for a reliable daily...

 

Trying to start the car with a weak battery is just going to foul the plugs again. I know it is hard to believe they can already be fouled since they are new but I would recommend removing them and cleaning them very well then getting a good battery and start the car.

 

Since the car needs new plugs and with the battery being dead, I'm just going to do both at the same time. Also going to do a compression test just to see what it's at anyway with the car having 65k on it and not knowing much of the engine's history.