a few days ago I pulled the car out of the garage to do some cleaning, then back in. Today I went out and the car wouldn't start. The engine is turning, but sounds different...I am hearing a long, steady turn from the starter instead of the wavering sound when things are working fine.

I did a search to find that these cars are somewhat picky when they just get started for a minute. As suggested for that, I held the throttle to the floor and tried starting for about a minute. All that did was kill the battery. I have the charger on it now.

I didn't get any strange sounds that would suggest timing tentioners, and it almost doesn't seem like there is compression.

I took a quick look at the fuses (all 5 boxes) and didn't find anything burnt out...but I am new to this car and don't really know the mapping. How do you tell if the big fuses (or are they breakers) are blown?

Any ideas? The inlaws are coming in to town tomorrow and I would really appreciate not looking like the looser that can't keep a car running.

 

Please excuse the brevity, on way out when I saw this. Almost certainly flooded, which they can do if they are stopped before the choke cycle has completed. Washes the thin oil film out of the cylinders and then almost total compression loss hence the different cranking sound.

Only two options - charge battery and repeat what you were doing (took me about three minutes of cranking on and off with the gas pedal clamped to the floor) until it splutters into life (lots of smoke as well) or put a small amount of oil into each cylinder then put plugs back in etc. and crank away (also lots of smoke). Good news is mine hasn't missed a beat since so once started you will likely be fine. You won't do that again, and neither will I

Also, loads of posts here about it.

Jim

 

See if this helps http://www.gusglikas.com/AutoRepairNoStart.htm

 

Well, I got home from work with new plugs in hand. I gave the starter a shot and it fired right up. Thanks for the calming advice.

 

On the road again!! Good for you!