Rev 4 NA wont start

[Billybaggins]

Hi all, I have a 1997 NA with 130k miles.

Quick story of what has happened.... I started the car, no problems, drove 200m then let it sit to warm up, within about 60 seconds the engine just cut as if I had switched the ignition off. I tried to restart and it just turns over. I can smell fuel and I pulled the king lead off and i dont seem to be getting a spark from there. So i left the car.

Came back the next day and it started as normal, so i drove it back round to my shed and left it again.

Came back today (3 days after) and its back to not starting but has a smell of fuel.

Any ideas of what to look at? Coil, igniter or ECU maybe? Im no good with the multi meter so checking for continuity etc is probably not goping to happen. And why is this intermittent? the day she started up it was instant starting.

Would an immobiliser cause the car to not even turn over or would it turn over but not spark?

cheers in advance

[Billybaggins]

ps, dizzy cap, rotor arm, plugs and leads are recent

[Ryan S]

Sounds like the coil. Replace it and see how it goes. If symptoms persist move on to the next thing, coils are fairly common at this time of year. Just get a blueprint part as the toyota ones aren't worth the extra money in my opinion

[chrismit]

When the car did start after resting did it sound like it was mis-firing at all?

I had a similar issue where a fuel injector was stuck open, the car cut out on me and would not start due to there being too much fuel and it couldnt ignite.

Had to get towed home and the next morning i turned it over and it fired up due to all the fuel evaporating i assume you could tell it was mis-firing.

Ended up replacing the injector and it has been fine since.

Just a thought

The way i tested this was to disconnect the king lead and turn the car over with no ignition with the spark plugs removed one by one, when i got to the problem injector fuel was shooting up out of that cylinder like a geyser lol

[chrismit]

just re read the no spark! so ignore me above just something to add lol

[Billybaggins]

Sounds like the coil. Replace it and see how it goes. If symptoms persist move on to the next thing, coils are fairly common at this time of year. Just get a blueprint part as the toyota ones aren't worth the extra money in my opinion

Cheers ill maybe try a coil, I'll see if I can borrow one would be the best bet before I go buying things. Does the intermittent bit sound right for a coil though?

[Billybaggins]

chrismit no worries, good to keep in mind though in case of future problems

[Ryan S]

Sounds like the coil. Replace it and see how it goes. If symptoms persist move on to the next thing, coils are fairly common at this time of year. Just get a blueprint part as the toyota ones aren't worth the extra money in my opinion

Cheers ill maybe try a coil, I'll see if I can borrow one would be the best bet before I go buying things. Does the intermittent bit sound right for a coil though?

Yeah definitely. Mine was a total pain when it went as it was intermittent!

[Billybaggins]

Do you know if the jap imports used the same coil? I'm going to buy a used Toyota one for now and there's one nearby me but its a rev 3 import

[Ryan S]

Do you know if the jap imports used the same coil? I'm going to buy a used Toyota one for now and there's one nearby me but its a rev 3 import

I'm not 100% but I think they are the same, The rev2 has a different plug i believe.

[Billybaggins]

Just an update, replaced the coil (which looked perfect) and now all Is good. Cheers for the help

[Ryan S]

Just an update, replaced the coil (which looked perfect) and now all Is good. Cheers for the help

They often look perfectly fine, they suffer from water ingress. Looks fine, full of water. I personally think the mr2 ignition system is woeful, Others believe it's great...have a look at Nissans of the same era. None of them using the archiac distributer etc. All coil on plug

[pbmr2]

Just an update, replaced the coil (which looked perfect) and now all Is good. Cheers for the help

They often look perfectly fine, they suffer from water ingress. Looks fine, full of water. I personally think the mr2 ignition system is woeful, Others believe it's great...have a look at Nissans of the same era. None of them using the archiac distributer etc. All coil on plug

That's not quite the case. Many of the nissans of the same era as the mk2 had a dizzy setup. Look at the pulsar for a start. Some of the other nissan models were using a dizzy up to 2001.

I don't think the system in the 2 is bad, it's just old tech and needs a little more maintenance than a modern no dizzy, COP system. Main problems are coils failing (after how many years now?!!), dizzy parts wearing out like they were designed to do and the odd oil leak from a near 20 year old rubber gasket.

Look at the mazda rx8, it eats coils and they are not cheap! they didn't start making that till 2003. There is little wrong with the mr2 system, it's just old and unloved so fails from time to time. I bet if new toyota parts were used they would last many, many more years.

[Ryan S]

That's interesting, i wonder why the Pulsar had a dizzy when the sr20 in the 200sx had coil on plug, the earlier s13 also had coil on plug which is what I was basing my point on really. Rx8s were/are lemons, I've had 2 and they are just woeful, No idea what they were thinking with the ignition system in that

Anyway, i'll be glad to be shot of the mr2 ignition system once mine is done, coil on plug is a fairly straight forward conversion. I don't know why more people haven't done it