Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

Ok, Heres what I have and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
1995 Eagle Talon TSI AWD.
2.0 Liter turbo stock except for a cold-air intake
Just bought the car 1.5 months ago.
Car ran great except for if you shut the car off after driving it around, The ide would seem to "stick" at 1500-2500 rpms. I planned on lubricating the throttle body but have not yet gotten that far. PLaying with the throttle lever seemed to allow the ide to return to normal.

A couple days ago I drove to a customers house to fix her computer and when I shut off the car it was running fine. When I left, ( about 1.5 hours later) the engine was still pretty warm. However when I started the car it ran very rough and the upper engine seemed excessively noisy. I had it running for about 30 seconds before I shut it off. I called my wife to let her know the "new" car might not make it all the way home. I restarted it (Oil gauge showed good pressure, yes factory gauge,idiot light not on) and began to turn around to leave and after about 30 seconds it dies. I attempt to restart and it is starting very hard (noisy upper engine present for remainder of story). Once started I can rev up the engine and seconds later ---- engine dies. Rinse repeat untill cows come home.

I see no disconnected Wires or vacuum lines. No melted or otherwise damaged wires. No damaged engine components.

I left car there and got my truck and a tow dolly. Mounted it up and drove 10 feet before I realised "Duh, AWD Dude. This won't work!" Put car back on ground and called wife to bring me a Car trailer with her van. I drive 1/2 way back to rental place waiting for my wife to arrive. Eat crappy fast food breakfast. Wife calls, No good. Van too low with trailer attached. Great, I drive back leave Dolly get trailer heading back, wife calls. She wants to go with to spend time together, GRRRRRR fine.... Wife and kids pile in with Crappy fast food lunch. Noisy kids, heavy trailer Truck sucking down more gas.... get back to my talon and start getting car onto the trailer. Kid gets sick in truck from headache/nausea (likely from crappy fast food) Smallest must pee, Sweating butt off using come-along to pull talon onto trailer watching front bumper scrape ramps on the way up. My wife was really good at steering it on and keeping the car from rolling back down when I had to adjust come-along. Finally after each kid and wife goes to bathroom at this customers house (Very gracious, very nice. Made me a BLT night before wile I waited for my wife to arrive). One more stop at gas station for gas and migrane medicine for sick child. Everyone making nose long trip back to town.

Stopped at Auto part store to borrow code scanner to see if there is any help. Car has generic OBD II connector, scanner wouldn't connect unless I used Chrysler specific connector (wich the car does not have) Stopped at chrysler dealer ask for help. Got the sorry buddy routine. Take it to two other places hoping someone will help me get codes. Didn't happen. Put car in my driveway and did the following:

Plug wires tested good
plug wires pulgged in (both ends)
pulled Valve cover off to look at cams, No visual problems. (crakned engine and there is very good Oil going to upper engine) (Mobil 1 synthetic)
Timing belt changed in 2001 (was written on cover by mechanic) Belt also visually inspected, no cracks etc... Seems properly tensioned also.

I'm kinda lost, the noise dosen't sound like anything I have heard before (I'm a V-8 guy, yeah I stepped out on a limb.) Does not sound like a rod or main bearing. It could be vaugely a lifter sort of sound but not really. If I ignore the sound, and pretend I don't hear it, I would say the engine is acting like the distributor/ ignition timing is horridly wrong except there is no back-fires etc....

It starts hard if I press on the gas pedal while cranking, revs up then dies. In about 5 seconds. Need some help. I'm practically broke and need a place to start. I would check the fuel pressure if I could find a port, but there dosen't seem to be one on the rail. I've read several threads but none seem to fit with my symptoms.

Thank you for reading my story and thank you for any help you can provide.

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

Try the Mass AFS

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

Wow Bigfatso. Let me take this all in for a minute and I'll see what I can troubleshoot for you.
Check the MAF real quick. It will cause this same issue if it's not connected.
Here's what I'm talking about...
http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/2G/Q3.htm
It's inbetween the filter and the red intake pipe. You can see the wires connected to the black box called the MAF.

Welcome to MF too :)

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

If you back out of that page, Bigfatso, you can see what's connected to the motor and how it's supposed to be.
http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Eng...sual-index.htm

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/ICtester.html

Make one of those. If you have a big enough leak it'll cause those exact symptoms.

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

Thanks for the replies. The MAF sensor is connected. I did also check all the connectors to all the sensors I could find and they are all plugged in. All that I could reach I either disconnected and then re-connected or wiggled them to make sure they were seated.
TSG59_Steve --- I will read thru the document and build one and try that. I'm about out of vacation time so it might be a day or two before I can try it. I have to get my festiva running so I won't be spending $600 a month on gas.

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

BTW, My 1995 Talon with a 2.0 DOHC. Is it a 1st generation or 2nd generation??? I'm still a bit foggy on that.

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

my 98 eclipse GS did something similar and it turned out to just be bad spark plug wires.

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

bigfatso, whats ur running is whats called a 2gA... lemme quickly explain... 89-94(correct me on first production date if im wrong) is a 1st gen, 95-96 is the 2gA, completely different change from 1st gen as far as looks alone, also with motors as well, then you have your 97-99 which is your 2gB, same basic body contoures as your 2gA, but with different bumpers and headlights

RE: Barely starts and then dies in 5 Seconds
 

in a situation like this just becuase of the noise this first thing i would check is the timing belt to make sure it didnt jump time or something come apart.
on my car the bearing on the idler pulley just fell apart out of nowhere, it made some noise but not very loud and wouldnt run to save its life becuase of it going out of time.
if you could post a video with good soundwe could help diagnose it better.