Car cranks but wont turn over

JESS526

MEMBER
1999 MERCURY SABLE
6 CYL
AUTOMATIC

My car wont start, when trying to start it cranks but will not turn over, and with continuous tries the battery ends up draining and I end up having to have the car jumped and the battery power restores but will drain right back down when trying to start a number of times. I have checked the fuel pump and it seems to be working including having a spray at the fuel rail stem thing. I did check each of the spark plugs and none of them are firing, but I don't know if that has anything to do with battery being low or not. I have also checked the battery connections and they too seem to be fine and clean. I don't know how to check the compression, so I have not checked that yet. If you have any insight on this it'd be greatly appreciated, because as it stands right now I have very little money and wont be having another paycheck for 2 weeks. So I'd really like to do the checking on my own versus having car towed to a mechanic.
Thanks for your time. Jessica

5 Replies

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

Get a helper disconnect a sparkplug wire or 2 and ground it to the engine atleast 3/16 away from ground-have helper crank engine over-do you have a snapping blue spark? If so-you have a fuel related problem, Do you hear the fuel pump come On when you turn key on? If not check fuel pump fuse and fuel pump relay if okay-check the fuel pressure to rule out the fuel filter/fuel pump/pressure regulator and listen to the injector/s are they pulsing or hook up a noid light. No snapping blue spark continue to troubleshoot the ignition system-power input to the coil/coil packs, coil's resistances, cap and rotor, distributor pick-up coil, ignition control module, cam and crank sensors and computer Note: If it doesn't apply disregard it and keep testing

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Thursday, May 5th, 2011 AT 5:30 PM

JESS526

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I have checked the spark plugs that way, and like I said no blue spark or any spark at that. The fuel pump is working fine. There isn't a distributor cap, just and ignition coil and I replaced that yesterday, but still not starting. How do you check the
compression, control module, cam and crank sensors?

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Thursday, May 5th, 2011 AT 5:57 PM

RUFUS420

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5 POSTS

I had a problem with the feed line on the fuel pump come unscrewed somehow in the gastank, dropped tank and screwed the feed back on. Had me stumped cuz I heard that pump comin on

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Sunday, May 15th, 2011 AT 2:26 PM

RUFUS420