Car wil only start with starting fluid

[Erlend]

Hi guys

New member here, my daily driver has been stuck in the garage for almost i year now, and the winter is almost here, and i need to get it going…I want to park my chevy before the snow and salt is comming.
Its a 95 Kia Sportage

Well… to turn back in time, in 2012, almost at this time, the fuel pump in the car went bad.
The pump was changed, also the fuel tank and injectors was removed and clean, and the car would run awsome for three whole months…in around january this year, i was pulling in to work, and the car just died… Had it towed to my garage, and found out the 3months old fuel pump was dead….(damn you ebay!)

Contacted so the seller of the pump that promissed me that he would send out a new one…or 2. A month went by and no pump did arive. So, i went kinda crazy and order 3, brand new fuel pumps… Also ending up buying a new pump at a shop here in norway…

So, yeah tried some f/p and none of them would make the run like it used to. Again, cleaned the fuel lines,etc and really did not make a diffrence. At that time i was able to get it started, but run on like 500rpm at idle. Just shake and no power at all… If you pressed the gasspedal, it was like the power just dissapered. But later, i come to think about two years ago, when the car was missfiring, due to a bad coilpack, and ending up orderings brand new igniton parts. Plugs, coilpack wires etc.

So, it really did not make i diffrence, but atleast i know that theyre good….And should last a long time…Still the same, if im lucky it would barely start.

Really put a lot of money in this car.

Some facts:

* New sparkplugs, wires, coilpack etc
* Timing belt was changed around 20-30k miles ago. (3-4years)
* No fault codes stored
* Runs with starting fluid
* Injectors are clicking
* There is fuel pressure, and its circling around in the system.
* Smells fuel in the exhuast, after a while with cranking.
* Fuel pump and filter, is 10 months old.
* Compression should be ok, as the car is running good on starting fluid

Any tips?

Topic

[Erlend]

Hi

Thanks!

Yeah, i wil get some fresh fuel…!
Could a gallon or two be enough? (and yeah, gonna drain the old fuel)

Really lookin for a fuel pressure tester, that i could loan, but will se.

[Kevin Criswell]

[quote=”dj-vega” post=81425]Hi

Thanks!

Yeah, i wil get some fresh fuel…!
Could a gallon or two be enough? (and yeah, gonna drain the old fuel)

Really lookin for a fuel pressure tester, that i could loan, but will se.[/quote]

I would go for about 5 gallons, you don’t want to much as most likely you are going to have to pull the tank and the least amount of draining is always better.

[Erlend]

Ok, thanks

Just letting you know that this car has inspection hole under the rear seat…and there is a drain bolt on the gas tank…(I found that out last time i had the tank down and drained it the other way..

[Kevin Criswell]

Yeah, your has the nice drain on it. But, you don’t want to have to drain more than necessary if you have to do the pump.

[Erlend]

Ok, I guess the fuel pump itself it good. is almost a year. From ebay, was was a real brand… After my first fuel pump broke laste year, i ordered a “fake”(i aaume, as there was no packaging) airtex pump that lasted for 3 months…the car was awsome those 3 months…since the seller never sent me a replacement i bought 4 brand new fuel pumps…i have tried two of these…On i bougth locally, and that was returned, as there was no difrence…

[Kevin Criswell]

Well the first thing is confirm good pressure and than go to checking the injectors to ensure they are being pulsed.

Normally if you have a vehicle that will run an alternative fuel source you have a fuel delivery issue.

Once thing to check is that the throttle position sensor is not sending a wide open throttle signal. You can test that by unplugging the TPS and seeing if the truck will start.

Many vehicles have a “clear flood” mode if the computer thinks you are holding the gas pedal to the floor. It will run the pump but shorten the injectors pulse width to a point where the engine is receiving almost zero fuel.

[Erlend]

Hi. Last weekend. I removed the fuel rail like 2 inches away from the engine, to check if they where firing when cranking…and yeah they did. The “spray” looked the same on all four. Altough this car has air-shrouded injectors…

Also about the tps; tps was replaced two years ago, this one was not a bosch one. Looked identical as the older one, but without the bosch logo. The reason i replace it was like “putting parts on it and hoping it would fix a problem that turned out to be bad coils….” kinda have learned from it…but i should have the old one laying around in the garage…

There is also no fault codes stored…

Is it the impedance i should check?

Thanks 🙂

[Kevin Criswell]

[quote=”dj-vega” post=81439]Hi. Last weekend. I removed the fuel rail like 2 inches away from the engine, to check if they where firing when cranking…and yeah they did. The “spray” looked the same on all four. Altough this car has air-shrouded injectors…

Also about the tps; tps was replaced two years ago, this one was not a bosch one. Looked identical as the older one, but without the bosch logo. The reason i replace it was like “putting parts on it and hoping it would fix a problem that turned out to be bad coils….” kinda have learned from it…but i should have the old one laying around in the garage…

There is also no fault codes stored…

Is it the impedance i should check?

Thanks :-)[/quote]

There is a good chance everything is working fine. but the gasoline is old enough it will not fire up a engine that has not run in a long while.

What makes gas go stale? Usually the first thing that happens is the lighter chemicals in it evaporate, leaving behind a heavier, less peppy product. Gasoline is an ideal motor vehicle fuel partly because it vaporizes readily to form a combustible mix with air. If it sits unused, however, its more volatile components waft away, leading to poorer engine performance. It’s hard to tell how much punch your gas has lost without scientific testing, but don’t worry — though your car might start a little harder, it’ll still run (assuming it ran before), and there’s little risk in burning the fuel if this is all that’s gone wrong.

The second cause of bad gas is oxidation — some of the hydrocarbons in the fuel react with oxygen to produce new compounds, almost all of them worse than what you started with. When oxidation becomes a problem, you’ll know it without lab tests — the gasoline gives off a sour odor. If you pour some into a glass container, you’ll see it’s turned dark, and you might find small, solid particles of gum. Using oxidized gasoline is a bad idea, since the gum can clog your fuel filter, create deposits in your fuel system (especially the injectors), and generally hurt performance.

Finally there’s the problem of contamination. Water, which can cause gas-line freezing and other problems, is the main culprit — it usually gets into stored gas via condensation as temperatures fluctuate. If the gas is relatively fresh, a “fuel dryer” additive (basically isopropyl alcohol) can help by combining with the water to make a burnable mix that can be run through the system. Another potential problem caused by water is bacteria, although that’s not nearly as common. Gas contaminated with dirt or rust is a no go, as the crud will foul your engine.

How long does it take for gas to go bad?

That depends on a number of factors. For one, it’s hard to know how old the gas you just bought actually is. It may be fresh from the refinery, or it may be a month old already by the time you top off your tank. Some gasoline is mixed with better or more oxidation inhibitors than others.

It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid leaving gas in your tank or a storage container for more than a coupe of months, if you can avoid it.

[Kevin Criswell]

I did a restore once on 1999 Gran Prix that had sat unused for 9 years (lady’s son’s car and he died, she refused to sell or move it for 9 years before she finally broke down and gave it to a customer of mine).

Pulled the fuel tank and replaced it (fuel was so old it had solidified into a yellow jello-ish substance)

[Erlend]

Hi. Thanks… will check the tps and gas. Will update when i know more…:-)

[Kevin Criswell]

sounds good

[Erlend]

Hi Again

Ending up switching the TPS sensors today. Now its the genuine bosch parts that is installed. Really made no diffrence. Also tried to start with the tps connector disconected, but no luck there…
It smells fuel out of the exhaust when cranking….seems like the fuel wont burn…since the car still is able to run on starting fluid… I guess next thing is to try and drain the gas, on pour in som new gas…
Hopefully this would work… :silly: :blink:

[Erlend]

Hi

I was feeling like there was something more i could do.
So, i got in my other car, and drove to my garage…and jacked up the car. Put it on 4 jack stands…
Found a rachet and a 15mm(?) socket and some storage containers for the old fuel it self.
Drained all the fuel, and installed the drain bolt again. Bougth like 20 liters of fuel. (95octane) that like 5,5 gallon… I was cranking for some time…think i removed the Idle sensor, and started the thing up… The car runs on its own gasoline now! But to be able to idle it somehow i blocked 70% of the air intake…Than it would ran ok ish. And after some time idling i was able to rase the rpm… as long as a did it slowly i could rev it all the way up….But when i was to fast with the pedal it was like “NO, i dont want to!” Some puffing noises. The car ran for like an hour. No red catalytic converter, or anything. On leakage i found was the front seal around the crankshaft…That will be fixed a soon as im able to fix the main problem…

Ive also been able to start it like this for a long time ago…(yeah, the car has been sitting for a year, a lot could happend in that time…) So now, i guess the main issue is that when i try to push down the pedal it has no power. Seems like its not getting enough fuel, since it would run better aslong as i ducktape the air intake…

Ps: Are uploading alot of videos of today at youtube, that + some pics would come ASAP…

[Kevin Criswell]

First thing change the oil. All that bad gas is likely in your oil and that can cause bad running problems also. Plus cylkinder wash down might have made the compression less in the motor.

You might still need to clean the fuel system the injectors could be partially clogged.

[Erlend]

Hi

Yeah, oil change will be done Asap.
Cylinderwash down? is that was unburned fuel goes down to the oil pan?

[Author]

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