95' 850 mess of a couple months, save it from the scrapyard!

[irishjays]

Ok, here are the results from the Northern Front:

The rain finally stopped last night so I got out my tools and tried some things.
1. I read the diagnostic codes from the led unit in the front of the car.
Pin 6 gave me:
No signal from Cam Sensor.
(well I already replaced that with a new one, and it does start so I figure that just wasn't cleared)
Pin 2 gave me:
Weak Fuel mixture short term
Weak Fuel mixture Long term

2. Just in case I replaced the capacitors on my Fuel Pump Relay, I love the smell of solder, hate burning my fingers.


*EDIT: Also I had the car idling and unclipped the MAF sensor, it died immediately.
**EDIT: Vacuum lines + hoses are all good.

[irishjays]

Bumpitybumpbump

[kcodyjr]

By "weak" I'm inferring "lean". You've already done the pump and filter, so just check nearby the pump for worn insulation on the wires feeding power to the pump. I've heard of them rubbing, wearing through, and then intermittently shorting to the chassis.

If that's not it, next suspect is clogged injectors. I'm reading you can get it running some of the time, so do that, with some Techron in the tank. You'll want no less than one bottle to a half-tank of fuel. You might also try a real fuel pressure gauge on that Schrader valve; verifying the pressure number will let you rule out the fuel pressure regulator/damper.

If that's still not it, you might just suspect O2 sensors. Someone recently pointed out that you can deliberately induce a vacuum leak (pull something off) forcing a lean-burn to heat up the exhaust gases and cook the crud off them. I think this is kind of reaching; if it's been running lean all along, this shouldn't be the problem.

One other thing. After having replaced so much, you should reset the adaptives. First, clear those codes. Then, pull off the negative battery cable and put it up against the positive cable, completing the circuit without the battery being part of it. Then go step on the brake a few times for good measure. Put it back together, start it up, and perform the drive cycle. Then look for new codes.

[irishjays]

Well I looked briefly at the pump wires and didn't see anything that stood out.

Still takes a key turn, cranking for 5 seconds no fire, pause in key turn for 2 seconds, key turn crank and fire.

I put fuel injector cleaner in it and limped around the block. Again with the chugging, the vroom, chug, vroom, chug, and most the time no acceleration with pedal depress.

Then I let the car idle for about 30 minutes.

I reset the codes and completed the circuit by connecting the terminals.

Tried to get the car running again, idled terribly, took a few minutes just to get the idle to stay going. Then it idles for awile, I went in to eat, came out, and it was stalled. Couldn't start it at that point. I re-read the codes and it gave me "Fuel mixture to weak at Idle." Well no shit. LoL.

I'm thinking this could be either:

My Throttle Position Sensor (because Once I get the RPM's over 3-3.5k I could drive it in 1st gear all day long, if I changed gears and it dropped under 2, chuggersville)

My fuel pump, it's the only thing I had replaced by a 3rd party, I bought the part from auto zone and maybe it sucks. ( I don't know how to test the pressure at the rail, but the guy I paid to install it is a friend of the family and he told me it was good. Of course it worked great for 2 days after he did it.

MAF sensor. o2 Sensors. I'm not getting errors in the OBDC-1 but the MAF sensor visably looked worn, and I did clean it real good.

Annoyances: I lost my torx bit under the fuse box container.
Annoyances: The thing still wont run.

[erikv11]

If it is the MAF, then it will start up and run just fine with the MAF unplugged. It is common for the car to choke if you just unplug the MAF while running, that isn't telling you anything. So I really doubt it is the MAF but if you just do the test right you will know. Unplug, start up the car, give it a rev to adjust to MAF-less defaults. The computer will see there is no MAF, switch to default air:fuel and run the engine smoothly. Unless your problem is somewhere else, then it will stay rough anyway ...

You can check pressure at the rail with a fuel pressure tester (seems not worth the expense) or I have seen it posted that people buy a cheap tire gauge and check it that way. The fuel will ruin the gauge but you will get a good reading then throw it away.

TPS is a pretty good idea. I have read on this forum about testing the resistance of the TPS but never done it. I would just try to get ahold of another one and swap it in, TPS is very easy to swap. Junkyard sensors are totally fine for troubleshooting if you don't want to spend $$ chasing things, pretty much every TPS at the yard will be working.

[irishjays]

It wont start at all now. I can get it to barely fire, but if I do it will stall immediately. It's almost funny that just over a week ago I drove it 60 miles with two dogs sleeping in backseat, it chugged a bit getting of the highway, but I made it fine. Now she's immobile.

[kcodyjr]

Any smell of fuel when you've been cranking it?

If not, that's another data point toward fuel starvation.

If so, time to look at ignition and compression.

[irishjays]

Reeked of fuel when I was pumping the gas a little to get the car to fire up. I have about 3 days until my father in-law will being over a trailer to move this thing. It's hard to imagine the fuel injectors being messed up though there is cleaner in the tank now. I read somewhere I could take them out, replace the o-rings and soak them in full strength cleaner overnight. I don't have a gauge to measure pressure, not have I ever messed with the fuel rail. However I'm always willing to learn and I have a Hayes manual if you guys are sleeping so let me know if there's anything you would do in the next few days to make er' or break er'

[kcodyjr]

If it stinks of fuel, then it's gotta be getting fuel.

This is really sounding like ignition. If compression was bad, it should at least try to spit and fart.

Check the plugs again. Pull 'em and post pics.

Also, check the wires. With all exterior lights off, at night, engine idling, spark plug cover removed, stand there and let your eyes adjust to the darkness and look for blue arcing. Did you check the distributor cap and rotor for wear?

As for injectors, you can rule them out by removing one and sticking it into a bucket. Have someone crank while you watch for a nice clean fine mist coming out.

Finally, did you clear those codes? Any new ones?

[E Showell]

A bad engine coolant temperature sensor can cause this problem (I know from firsthand experience). Change it and the thermostat together.