[si
ze=4][/size] I just bought a 1990 eclipse for a $ 100.00 The guy I bought it from said he ran out of gas and he put more in and it didnt start. It has been sittting in the garage for a litttle while. Where should I start to get it running?

 

AWW man... There is a saying from where I am from, its called you get what you pay for. Lol just messing with you. For their to be a fire you need fuel, take out the plugs and crank her over and see if you can smell the gas. Then hook up a multi meter to the spark plugs and see if your getting spark. After you find out what your not getting hit us up and we will be able to tell you what exactly is wrong.

 

Does the check engine light up when you turn the key? If not- check for injector pulse at the injector connector while cranking then check for spark by removing a spark plug boot- installing an old spark plug- put the negative electrode of the plug close to ground (any bare metal part of the engine) and inspect for spark and the quality of the spark while having someone crank. (Not sure what is meant by hooking up a multimeter to the plugs in the previous post) If you have neither of the above- chances are you've got a bad ECU (very common for 1G). It's possible to HAVE a check engine light and NOT have spark or injector pulse and STILL have a bad ECU. You might be able to find a good deal on an ECU on Ebay. Just remove the old one and match up the part numbers. Good luck!

Joel, CA

 

Your plugs should put out a cartian voltage, specified by the manifacture, so if the plugs should see 4.5 volts, with the multi meter you can see exactly what volts they are putting out. Its a more acurate way then just looking at the spark.

 

Secondary ignition voltage is in the thousands of volts which is something a multimeter can't measure. That is why secondary ignition voltage is measure with an inductive pickup using a scope. Visual confirmation is a excellent way of confirming spark strength. A bright orange sparks is okay... and nice blue spark is better. A weak coil output can be seen without having the sophisticated equipment required to measure. The only thing a Mulimeter is used for is checking primary voltage or for checking ignition wire resistance.


Joel, CA

 

Haynes repair manual, volume 68031, chapter 5, section 6, Igntiton system check. Also fuiger 7.6 shows how to use a multi meter to check the resistance on the coil pack.

My repair manual is my bed side reading lol.

 

Checking for primary voltage at a coil pack is MUCH different than checking secondary voltage at the spark plug (which is what you stated he should do).

Joel, CA

 

n/m then i though they were the same.

 

also going to a salvage yard and getting one out of a similiar car is better than ebay. thats how i fixed mine was with a salvage yard replacement.