[jdsdog10]

My first car post. I’ve left my 97 corolla outside on the street for the last 4-8 weeks or so without driving it, and now it’s not starting.
It sounds like the engine is cranking without any problems, but the engine isn’t firing. I’ve had it on the jumper for 20 minutes and it didn’t seem to make a difference.
Tested battery, and they said it was at 84%.
I watched Scotty Kilmer's video on the topic, and he said it was likely either fuel intake related or ignition related. He said to spray starter fluid into intake and then start. didn't help. He said if that didn't get it started then test for spark. I took the coil out and put a spark plug in it, put black jumper cable on spark plug and the other end of the black cable on battery negative. When I tried starting the car I was getting spark.
Not really sure where to go from here.
Any ideas?

 

[de-nagorg]

Since I don't know your abilities, I am going to think, you are pulling the collective leg here.

I sure do not understand anything that you said that you did in your trial to start this.

You need three things, clean air, fuel, and spark, all at the same time at the right place.

Check your distributor cap for cracks, or burnt terminals inside, is the rotor still good, or even present?

Are you using the ignition switch, in the car.

Maybe HOTWIRE it.


ED

 

[roughneck]

Need to make sure all 4 cylinders are getting spark, and that it’s getting fuel.
Was it running fine when you parked it? How old is the fuel in the tank?

 

[jdsdog10]

Thanks for the replies!The spark plugs and ignition coils are all less than 1k old. I was driving the car regularly until about 1-2 months ago. Fuel is about that old.

 

[ron45]

Does the car have a factory alarm.?
After marked alarm.?

 

[ukrkoz]

You have ignition packs, right? Not distributor?


I have no idea how you tested spark plug. If you have plug connected to battery direct, it WILL give spark. You are not testing for spark from battery. You are testing for spark from ignition system. Put negative onto engine good metal piece.


If you have spark, then you either have no fuel, or too much fuel, or timing is bad. If you have leaking injectors, they slowly flooded plugs with fuel, what condensed on them during cold. Wet plug will NOT start anything.
Burn plug tips with propane torch and then try starting.

If you do not have fuel - well, duh.

Remove timing belt cover and check for belt condition.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...DCAo&uact=5#kpvalbx=_VVssXr7EIbKA5wKcmqLgDQ30

 

[jbrah]

You have ignition packs, right? Not distributor?


I have no idea how you tested spark plug. If you have plug connected to battery direct, it WILL give spark. You are not testing for spark from battery. You are testing for spark from ignition system. Put negative onto engine good metal piece.


If you have spark, then you either have no fuel, or too much fuel, or timing is bad. If you have leaking injectors, they slowly flooded plugs with fuel, what condensed on them during cold. Wet plug will NOT start anything.
Burn plug tips with propane torch and then try starting.

If you do not have fuel - well, duh.

Remove timing belt cover and check for belt condition.

+1

OP, before removing timing belt cover, I'd focus on air, fuel and spark. Compression/timing isn't likely to be an issue all of a sudden. Also, you can hear the difference between compression and lack of compression when cranking - look for youtube videos on this. Once you know what compression while cranking sounds like, that's an easy test, and saves the hassle of removing timing belt cover.

One often overlooked issue with crank no-starts is the fuel pump relay. On Hondas, fuel pump relay is much more likely to go bad than the fuel pump itself. Might be true for Toyota as well.

Please elaborate on how you used starter fluid into the intake. If you performed this properly and the engine couldn't catch for even a couple of seconds, then fuel isn't the problem. In that case, focus on air and spark.

 

[Bigplanz]

Using a $5 test light to do some basic crank-no start testing.

 

[BigJim]

Some cars will not fire up unless the battery is at full charge.

 

[Bigplanz]

Oh, wesr rubber gloves when testing for spark. It will bite you if are grounded.

 

[roughneck]

OP, any updates? Threads are much better if they have an ending.

 

[lenaitch]

Some cars will not fire up unless the battery is at full charge.

I think this is a good point. It would seem unusual for a component failure to arise simply from sitting, and the modern electronics can be very voltage sensitive. There might be enough to roll the engine over but one or more of the engine management circuits might not be sensing enough. I don't know if such a condition would throw a code.
As an unrelated example, the security system on my Harley was acting up. I metered the battery in the fob and it was showing ~2.8v from a 3v button battery, which normally wouldn't be a problem in most things. The dealership said some fobs are very voltage sensitive. I bought a new one from them and they metered it at 3.1v. It's worked fine ever since.