Engine turns over, but wont spark

NOME_MAN

MEMBER
SATURN

I have a 1998 Saturn SL2 (143,000 miles) automatic, which recently just decided to stop working. I'm getting pretty frustrated with the car. In the past year, we've had to replace the battery twice, plugs, wires, water pump, wiring, and all 4 struts. I just put a new NAPA 85 month battery in it. New plugs and wires 8 months ago. Double checked the plugs, and they are properly gapped and not corroded.

For about a month before it died, the car would start right up most of the time, but occasionally would start, hesitate, and then stall. Once this happened, it would not want to start again for quite a while, and only if I pressed the gas pedal. Now when I try to turn it over, all I get is the engine cranking (slower the longer I crank), a chugging sound like the engine trying to catch, and a smell of gas. The engine almost sparks, but never quite gets there.

2 Replies

CHEVY22

MECHANIC
1,375 POSTS

There are quite a few input signals need to start the car, the pcm needs to read air intake, engine temp, air flow, and also get a signal from the crank and cam sensors, with no spark, I would start by checking all components listed for the plugs being on first of all, and check the crank sensor output signal, this feeds info to the pcm that there is movement and the ecm sends a signal to the spark module which sends a signal to the coils to fire, if you do not have the tools needed I would have someone look at it for ya, unless there is an engine light on and you can give us codes and we could try from there