Greetings. I'm new to this forum but there seems to be a wealth of experience here. I've worked on my own cars (for the most part) - it's an interesting endeavor. Until it leaves me in a dead end troubleshooting.
I had this 2000 626 V6, 65k miles on it, towed home a couple of weeks ago, but it remains where tow truck driver dropped it off. Darn.
Symptom: car cranks just fine, healthy battery, but won't fire and run. While under the hood, I noticed that oil had been running out from the left valve bank cover gasket and down onto the alternator. I figured that had caused the stoppage. Dashboard displayed Oil Light, Battery Light and the dreaded Check Engine. Connection of two different OBDII readers could see engine temp, air temp, a couple of other readings, but NO error codes.
The alternator was old, so I replaced it rather than try to get all the oil and grime cleaned out. Replaced both valve cover gaskets (geez, what a pain getting that intake manifold off and on). I noticed that the other valve bank was leaking into one of the ignition wire holes (cylinder #3). I soaked out the oil as best I could, but I'm sure SOME bit of oil ran into cylinder when I removed the spark plug.
All back together after cleaning the plugs now. On first attempt to start it, it cranked for a couple of seconds, then POP! (and some nice black smoke momentarily) from, I presume, the cylinder that had a little oil in it. Otherwise, no life. And continues to crank well, but not gonna start.
Standard trouble shooting: got both spark and fuel?
I laid a couple of the ignition wires out, in turn, with the spark plug still hooked up to them and out grounded on top of the engine - nice, healthy sparks.
Then pulled one end of the injector rails crossover tube and cranked for about 2 sec - captured several tablespoons of fuel. Yeah, kind of primitive without proper tools. Checked the power to the injector coils and it was present. Even hooked a little o'scope to one of the coils and could see the pulses firing the injector while cranking - pretty consistent. However, I did not try to analyze their width or spacing, although they did make full negative 12v to 0v transitions. So I'm concluding that fuel is OK. That POP!, when I first tried to start, had to be the cylinder with some oil in it, you suppose? Could it ignite even if piston was out out position (a timing belt problem) when spark fired?
I mention the timing belt, but all I did was pull back the timing belt cover, when I had the valve covers off, and shined a flashlight down in there. Didn't see anything much going on. Belt was intact.
So, am I looking at a bad PCM? I'm suspicious of that, since after this problem started, an OBDII reader doesn't seem to be able to fully communicate, especially that they cannot access the 'Check Engine' status or errors.
Or, as the song goes, am I "Looking in all the wrong places?"
I had this 2000 626 V6, 65k miles on it, towed home a couple of weeks ago, but it remains where tow truck driver dropped it off. Darn.
Symptom: car cranks just fine, healthy battery, but won't fire and run. While under the hood, I noticed that oil had been running out from the left valve bank cover gasket and down onto the alternator. I figured that had caused the stoppage. Dashboard displayed Oil Light, Battery Light and the dreaded Check Engine. Connection of two different OBDII readers could see engine temp, air temp, a couple of other readings, but NO error codes.
The alternator was old, so I replaced it rather than try to get all the oil and grime cleaned out. Replaced both valve cover gaskets (geez, what a pain getting that intake manifold off and on). I noticed that the other valve bank was leaking into one of the ignition wire holes (cylinder #3). I soaked out the oil as best I could, but I'm sure SOME bit of oil ran into cylinder when I removed the spark plug.
All back together after cleaning the plugs now. On first attempt to start it, it cranked for a couple of seconds, then POP! (and some nice black smoke momentarily) from, I presume, the cylinder that had a little oil in it. Otherwise, no life. And continues to crank well, but not gonna start.
Standard trouble shooting: got both spark and fuel?
I laid a couple of the ignition wires out, in turn, with the spark plug still hooked up to them and out grounded on top of the engine - nice, healthy sparks.
Then pulled one end of the injector rails crossover tube and cranked for about 2 sec - captured several tablespoons of fuel. Yeah, kind of primitive without proper tools. Checked the power to the injector coils and it was present. Even hooked a little o'scope to one of the coils and could see the pulses firing the injector while cranking - pretty consistent. However, I did not try to analyze their width or spacing, although they did make full negative 12v to 0v transitions. So I'm concluding that fuel is OK. That POP!, when I first tried to start, had to be the cylinder with some oil in it, you suppose? Could it ignite even if piston was out out position (a timing belt problem) when spark fired?
I mention the timing belt, but all I did was pull back the timing belt cover, when I had the valve covers off, and shined a flashlight down in there. Didn't see anything much going on. Belt was intact.
So, am I looking at a bad PCM? I'm suspicious of that, since after this problem started, an OBDII reader doesn't seem to be able to fully communicate, especially that they cannot access the 'Check Engine' status or errors.
Or, as the song goes, am I "Looking in all the wrong places?"
