[Zap]

Thanks for taking a look at my problem... hopefully someone with a better knowledge of the Vulcan ignition system can give me a hint.

I was driving my '93 Sable 3.0 on the freeway, when all of a sudden the engine died. Previous to this happening, I had to jump the car to get it running, and it would not start back up after shutting it off. I am almost certain that the battery is dead. It doesn't appear to be getting spark now, even when we try and jump it off of another car. Could a bad battery cause enough of a drain on the system that the starter will run when jumped, but the ignition will not fire? Otherwise, does it seem like an ignition coil problem? I have checked the fuel rail, and the fuel pump primes and it has pressure. We pulled the center wire off the distributor and it will not arc over to any metal. That leads me to believe that there is no spark from the coil... So if anyone can give me a better clue of what to look at next, I will check that. Thanks in advance!

BTW, I will go ahead and try to pull the codes in a little while... for now I have to run and eat. If that may help further, let me know!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[JCC]

I am assuming you jumped it because the starter would not spin the engine because of a lack of battery power. If this is the case then the spining alternator would provide the electricity for the ignition. but a bad battery would not charge so it would have to be jumped every time to start it. When the battery got bad enough to go to a dead or near dead short it sucks up all the juice when jumping so that there is not enough left to activate the ignition system. Mabye.

 

[Zap]

I ran the EEC test, and I got the following results:

I tried starting the car a few times in order to attempt to throw any codes.

I then ran the test, got codes indicating that sensors were out of range (I cannot warm up the car since it won't start, but they are HARD codes).

I also got a 558, EGR vacuum regulator solenoid/circuit failure. Is this something that might cause a no-start?

I tried using another good battery to start the car with, and it yields the same results as a jump-start, so I am guessing that the issue is not related to the battery. It cranks just like when I jumped it to drive, and but instead of starting, it just cranks endlessly.

 

[mwother]

If you are getting no spark then you likely need a new coil. If the engine is cranking then there is no problem with the bat or alt. I owned (for some stupid reason) a Chevy Citation and had the same problem, I had to replace the ECM?? Once I did that I had spark again.

 

[Zap]

Does the ICRM? (Black Box) above the radiator affect spark? If so, maybe the coolant vapors caused corrosion on the wiring and that could be the issue. I didn't think about it until now. The other sensor above the radiator is an airbag impact sensor, right?