Cheechi
08-13-2008, 11:29 AM
I will try to provide as much info as possible considering this is a problem that has taken a long time to get to this point. I'm not a mechanic, I do basic mechanical stuff, regular maint. etc. But I'm useless with electronics.
When I bought the car, the stock MAF had been relocated with a CAI. About 1ft of cables had been spliced in by someone who knew what they were doing.
Months ago we relocated my battery to the trunk. About a month later I changed the turn signal/headlight switch. Literally took me 5 mins to do. Car ran fine since these with no signs of either causing a problem, but it may turn out to be important info.
About 2 months later I noticed vibrations in my shifter, and as time went by the began getting more pronounced. Noticed decreased braking responsiveness had now turned to the 'slow sinking' feel of the pedal, but it holds pressure when the car is off. I took it to local mechanic, put it on the lift, no visible leaks at any wheel or hard lines. He agreed it's very likely the brake MC. While it was up there he verified the hubs/bearings on the front wheels need replacement.
I changed the left hub myself since that's what the dealership had in stock, changed outer tie rod as well. Lower ball joint still needs to be done but I'll have someone do that since I don't have a press to get it out and back in. Right hub came in later, they were not done at the same time and now it has not been touched due to more severe issues arising.
So now the left hub is changed, new bearing, all that. I notice even more clearly the brakes are not safe. Changed the brake MC. Had a friend to help bleed the brakes. One important note here - my CAI got in the way of us turning the wrench to get the MC out and in. The MAF is down behind my bumper (my short cone sticks out a little from the bottom of my bumper). We wanted to pull the car in straight to get to all 4 wheels, so we let the car roll down the hill out the garage, start it up to pull back in (literally 4-5 feet, definitely less than a full car length) without putting the piping back onto the throttle body. As i'm driving back in, I'm at about 4500rpm in first to get it to even move (not a very steep hill, maybe 15 deg at most) and we got it in.
So we got it up on stands, got the wheels off, I go to crank the car to bleed the brakes and it won't start. Went through a few things and my injectors aren't opening. No spark. Fuel pump is clearly audible. We leave it for another day.
I come back to it the next day and had some more general maintenance to do anyway, so I put new spark plugs in (the old ones had clear signs of use, fouled but not horrible), replaced dist. cap (wires are fine). Verified distributor is turning, but still no spark. Visual inspection shows no obvious signs of something out of the ordinary. Still no start, but it tries, meaning starter is getting power. This rules out an engine ground or something on the wiring harness got removed/damaged (i didn't think this was the case anyway).
I go through all the fuse boxes, relay boxes. Find the 25A ECM fusible link is blown. All others fine. Get a replacement, put it in, try to start and nothing new. The fuel pump is still audible so I know there's not a wiring problem to that fuse box (since it was mounted to the battery tray I thought that might be an issue).
So now here we are, I have a friend who is a lot more knowledgeable. Keep in mind the car has sat with the battery disconnected for about a month at this point. He discovers the check engine light doesn't come on when you put in the key/try to start. He's saying it's ECU not getting power so he runs 12v from the batt to get it on. Does the ECU self diag, it has no error codes. Probably anything in it is cleared. It turns on the ECM relay above it, audible click. 25A fuse still ok, but still no spark and no injectors.
So now the ECM relay will click on then 2 sec later click off. ECU is not providing power to all the stuff it should. My car is a 92 B13, so pre-OBDII ECU. I can't find a pinout guide for this one, if someone could help. He's thinking we have to go through the wiring harness with a fine-tooth comb to find burned wires, I'm thinking it might be a grounding issue. Either way, something killed that 25A fuse and I'm hoping there's a 'most likely' culprit someone may know of. Checked the MAF at this point and it's fine.
I've gone through this forum since the problem first started and have yet to come up with something I can use or suggest to him. My level of knowledge stopped being enough after the brake MC went in. I'm at a complete loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
When I bought the car, the stock MAF had been relocated with a CAI. About 1ft of cables had been spliced in by someone who knew what they were doing.
Months ago we relocated my battery to the trunk. About a month later I changed the turn signal/headlight switch. Literally took me 5 mins to do. Car ran fine since these with no signs of either causing a problem, but it may turn out to be important info.
About 2 months later I noticed vibrations in my shifter, and as time went by the began getting more pronounced. Noticed decreased braking responsiveness had now turned to the 'slow sinking' feel of the pedal, but it holds pressure when the car is off. I took it to local mechanic, put it on the lift, no visible leaks at any wheel or hard lines. He agreed it's very likely the brake MC. While it was up there he verified the hubs/bearings on the front wheels need replacement.
I changed the left hub myself since that's what the dealership had in stock, changed outer tie rod as well. Lower ball joint still needs to be done but I'll have someone do that since I don't have a press to get it out and back in. Right hub came in later, they were not done at the same time and now it has not been touched due to more severe issues arising.
So now the left hub is changed, new bearing, all that. I notice even more clearly the brakes are not safe. Changed the brake MC. Had a friend to help bleed the brakes. One important note here - my CAI got in the way of us turning the wrench to get the MC out and in. The MAF is down behind my bumper (my short cone sticks out a little from the bottom of my bumper). We wanted to pull the car in straight to get to all 4 wheels, so we let the car roll down the hill out the garage, start it up to pull back in (literally 4-5 feet, definitely less than a full car length) without putting the piping back onto the throttle body. As i'm driving back in, I'm at about 4500rpm in first to get it to even move (not a very steep hill, maybe 15 deg at most) and we got it in.
So we got it up on stands, got the wheels off, I go to crank the car to bleed the brakes and it won't start. Went through a few things and my injectors aren't opening. No spark. Fuel pump is clearly audible. We leave it for another day.
I come back to it the next day and had some more general maintenance to do anyway, so I put new spark plugs in (the old ones had clear signs of use, fouled but not horrible), replaced dist. cap (wires are fine). Verified distributor is turning, but still no spark. Visual inspection shows no obvious signs of something out of the ordinary. Still no start, but it tries, meaning starter is getting power. This rules out an engine ground or something on the wiring harness got removed/damaged (i didn't think this was the case anyway).
I go through all the fuse boxes, relay boxes. Find the 25A ECM fusible link is blown. All others fine. Get a replacement, put it in, try to start and nothing new. The fuel pump is still audible so I know there's not a wiring problem to that fuse box (since it was mounted to the battery tray I thought that might be an issue).
So now here we are, I have a friend who is a lot more knowledgeable. Keep in mind the car has sat with the battery disconnected for about a month at this point. He discovers the check engine light doesn't come on when you put in the key/try to start. He's saying it's ECU not getting power so he runs 12v from the batt to get it on. Does the ECU self diag, it has no error codes. Probably anything in it is cleared. It turns on the ECM relay above it, audible click. 25A fuse still ok, but still no spark and no injectors.
So now the ECM relay will click on then 2 sec later click off. ECU is not providing power to all the stuff it should. My car is a 92 B13, so pre-OBDII ECU. I can't find a pinout guide for this one, if someone could help. He's thinking we have to go through the wiring harness with a fine-tooth comb to find burned wires, I'm thinking it might be a grounding issue. Either way, something killed that 25A fuse and I'm hoping there's a 'most likely' culprit someone may know of. Checked the MAF at this point and it's fine.
I've gone through this forum since the problem first started and have yet to come up with something I can use or suggest to him. My level of knowledge stopped being enough after the brake MC went in. I'm at a complete loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.