Forum:
My 1997 sportrak elxi was running no problems untill a few days.
It cranks over fine and the battery is strong , its got fuel going to the fuel rail without a problem.
There is spark but i wouldnt say its the strongest .
I checked the resistance across ther coil and whilst it is ment to be between 22 and 30 K Ohms it is reading 12.
Could this explain why it is not starting?
I managed to start it just before by towing the sportrak with ignition on and dumping the clutch . initially whilst cold it had no power atall but when warm it was back to normal.
This is unusual as a coil
This is unusual as a coil normally breaks down as the engine gets warm and then it gives problems, let it cool down and it will start no problem.
One common problem with these is the coolant temperature sensor, if this is faulty (and they regularly are) it does one of two things:
1/ It will put it into limp home mode, this would put a fixed value or resistance in instead of the variable resistance you get in proportion to an engines temperature, this would make it more difficult to start and when its up to working temperature most people would not notice any loss of power. This is because the fixed resistance is set to the average resistance of an engine at working temperature.
2/ If the CTS is totally shot it won't give any resistance back to the ECU and it will drop into limp home mode and give the symptoms as above.
HT lead to blame
Right i changed the coil ( £48 lighter ) and no better still not starting.
This was due to all spark being lost at coil - could see arc from ht , through coil and to body of car.
I isolated the coil using a piece of rubber and started first time.
Changed the ht lead for one i had spare and has started first time every time since
Weak electrics.
Cracked distributor cap.