89 Camry: New Plugs, Wires, Cap, Rotor... Not Starting

89 V6 Camry

Started to rough idle and stall. I replaced the fuel filter and no change.

Paid for a diagnostic that stated #2 cylinder misfiring due to faulty wire, recommend replacing all of the wires, spark plugs, dist cap and rotor.

I changed everything and now the car won't start. It cranks hard, but it won't start. It feels like no fuel is going to the cylinder. When I pulled out the old plugs, I did find oil on the #2, #3, and #6 plugs (I know that isn't good, but I just want to get the car running again. It didn't ever blow any white smoke).

I swapped back to the old wires, and same thing, engine cranks but won't run. I put the old plugs back, and same thing. I reinstalled the new plugs and wires back in.

I did note that the plugs looked dry when I did the swap back to the old.

Any tips would be much appreciated. I'm stumped. I went through all the effort of removing the intake manifold to get to the back plugs. Did I mess something up there? I replaced the gasket for the manifold.

Many thanks everyone.

Make sure you are actually getting spark by using a spare spark plug attached to one of your wires and grounded against the engine. If you aren't, then check your ignition coil and the connections as well as the connections to the igniter. Check all electrical connectors around the engine that you may have touched.

If you are getting a healthy blue spark, then shoot a little starting fluid into the TB to see if it makes a difference to the engine turnover. If it does, then it is likely related to a fuel issue. Fuel pump? See if there is fuel pressure at the rail. You can try carefully uncoupling the fuel line going to the injector rail and see if it has pressure. (Use a rag under the fuel line coupling to absorb any fuel. Make sure you pressurize it by turning on the ignition initially). If fuel starts to spray out as you loosen it, you know there is pressure there, so just tighten it back up. If there is no pressure, then I would suspect the fuel pump or the pressure regulator. Check the fuses also.

dave mc

Are you sure you put the wires back on in the right order?

Thanks for the responses. I agonized over the order of the wires as I thought that is where I had messed up. I took digital photos of the cap before hand and I've got the Chiltons book and I think I have the order correct.

I didn't try the test to see if there is an actual spark. I haven't had anyone around to turn the key while I test for the spark. I am going to try that and I'll try to check the fuel pressure tonight after work. Hopefully my friend who knows a lot more than I do can help me out tonight.

Sounds to me like yet another dead ignition coil. Check the coil's resistances...if they are even near the limit, replace it.

So I bought a new ignition coil and installed it and still had no luck. My friend and I started to check the wires for sparks and more problems.

First we found no spark at the spark plug. We then checked to see if there was any spark at the wire leading from the ignition coil to the distributor cap - no spark.

We were stumped about why there was no spark coming from the new ignition coil. We found that the car had an old Karr alarm and we pulled it out and bypassed it. Still no luck.

Any ideas on what might be going on? We're really stuck and not sure what to do. Thanks again everyone for your help.

You will need to obtain the electrical schematics for your car and start probing the primary of the ignition coil with a voltmeter to see if it has power. The alarm you pulled may have had some sort of kill switch hooked into the ignition power wire that is now intermitent or leaving the ignitor without power. As well, check the fuses. Does the distributor/rotor actually rotate when cranking the engine? Otherwise, yes you will not get a spark and likely your timing belt is broken.

dave mc

Not the coil? Well, the next suggestion (and Davemac mentioned it) would be to test the ignitor, then check the EFI fuse. Finally, you can check the distributor rotation easy enough by pulling the cap off and cranking the engine.

The Karr brand was installed by some dealers as "factory-authorized" equipment. It's possible your local stealership would know where that switch was installed or have a manual for it. You may be able to contact them via e-mail too:

http://www.swdealerservices.com/karr.html

Hope this helps!