totally bizarre no-start problems - SOLVED (just a bad ground!)
Let me start by saying that I am completely baffled.
Background: 2005 forester 2.5X 5MT, just swapped in a motor from a 2003 forester, swapped over my '05 intake, cam and crank timing sprockets, etc, all went well, drive it for a week, ran great.
Then, i started having the fuel leak under the intake problem, so last night I took the intake back off and replaced all the rubber lines with new ones, and then buttoned it all back up. Started it up, took a while of cranking because the fuel lines have to re-fill, but ran just fine.
However, I noticed a couple odd things: Gas light came on (I have a half tank), gas gauge read empty, and there was a strange electrical "crackling" sound like relays with a bad connection. Ok fine, whatever. So I drove down the road 100 feet, and then it died.
After that, no matter what, I cannot get the car to run. Towed it back into my garage.
Here are the current symptoms:
- electrical "crackling" sound from inside the cabin while turning the key to "run" position
- zero response whatsoever from "start" position (most of the time). No solenoid, no crank, no nothing.
- Then intermittently, sometimes the starter would crank as usual, but the car would cough and sputter and sometimes even start for a half a second, then dead, then back to no response.
Things I tried:
- I disconnected, cleaned, and reconnected all electrical connections that I touched while doing the intake.
- Cleaned battery terminals
- wiggled the trigger wire on the starter
- sprayed starter fluid in the intake
- jump starting it (nothing)
- put on the battery charger
Things I am about to do:
- Sell it into slavery
- Burn it to the ground
- Cry
Anyone have any ideas? I am absolutely baffled, i've never seen no-start symptoms like this, and I have worked on many many cars (although this is my first Subaru)
Let me start by saying that I am completely baffled.
Background: 2005 forester 2.5X 5MT, just swapped in a motor from a 2003 forester, swapped over my '05 intake, cam and crank timing sprockets, etc, all went well, drive it for a week, ran great.
Then, i started having the fuel leak under the intake problem, so last night I took the intake back off and replaced all the rubber lines with new ones, and then buttoned it all back up. Started it up, took a while of cranking because the fuel lines have to re-fill, but ran just fine.
However, I noticed a couple odd things: Gas light came on (I have a half tank), gas gauge read empty, and there was a strange electrical "crackling" sound like relays with a bad connection. Ok fine, whatever. So I drove down the road 100 feet, and then it died.
After that, no matter what, I cannot get the car to run. Towed it back into my garage.
Here are the current symptoms:
- electrical "crackling" sound from inside the cabin while turning the key to "run" position
- zero response whatsoever from "start" position (most of the time). No solenoid, no crank, no nothing.
- Then intermittently, sometimes the starter would crank as usual, but the car would cough and sputter and sometimes even start for a half a second, then dead, then back to no response.
Things I tried:
- I disconnected, cleaned, and reconnected all electrical connections that I touched while doing the intake.
- Cleaned battery terminals
- wiggled the trigger wire on the starter
- sprayed starter fluid in the intake
- jump starting it (nothing)
- put on the battery charger
Things I am about to do:
- Sell it into slavery
- Burn it to the ground
- Cry
Anyone have any ideas? I am absolutely baffled, i've never seen no-start symptoms like this, and I have worked on many many cars (although this is my first Subaru)
