Ottawa Fiero Club Forum

well im sure this is a feeling we all get most of the time, but i just wanted to share my frustrations after 2 weeks in a row the starter just decided to not crank... it starts initially, then i park for half an hour then it decides not to start... then i decided to take my approach to all problems, which is hit it with a hammer till it works, and that failed... I must have fiddled with the wires or something cause it started, the second time i just fiddled with the wires and it fired right up after that.

this makes me think, should i be working on getting a new starter in there or just keep risking it over the winter. My mechanic keeps trying to tell me to get a new one, but i have a bad habbit of taking its current running condition and forgetting about the problem. I also fear the task ahead because of the damn catalytic converter... grr to 88 and its e-testing......

i just had to ramble to vent, and maybe here i can find someone who can convince me to do the work, or tell me my laid back laziness is a fine way to look at things for the time being..

Can't say that we've ever had any real "it's a lemon" moments about any of our Fieros, but other than for my very first one being a daily driver we've since managed to maneuver ourselves in to the position where we don't have to rely on them.

which is just fine given that we have none on the road at the moment!

If wriggling wires tends to temporarily solve your problem, odds are that there is something about one or more connections which has a high or infinite resistance unless it is "just right".  Dirt... moisture... corrosion... failed or improperly crimped cable terminals... internal wire brake... etc.

If you're still running the OEM cat and are worried about an upcoming e-test, get rid of it in favor of an over-the-counter generic one.  New cats are significantly smaller than the OEM, not to mention will do a better job at cleaning up the exhaust.  A compact cat plus extension pipe will also give you more room to access the starter comfortably.


Hang in there.  These silly little cars sometimes ask for a lot of TLC, but they do like to give back the grins.

Sounds like you have a few issues.  I recommend dealing with the easy (or sometimes hard) and cheep issue of following your circuits to make sure you have a proper connection.  If you let one problem go then when you encounter a second or third it becomes extremely difficult to troubleshoot because the symptoms become unusual and intermittent.

Fix issues when they arise and you'll never have a lemon.

Good luck,

Aaron

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Well thanks for the help and thoughts.. I will agree that this fiero has given me plenty of grins :D
now is the third time it has happened and this is convincing me to do something about it.

So the problems in the Fiero have continued...
so a while ago my tach was flakey, sometimes just not working
when accelerating , a different lower pitch sound would come from the back at about 2000 rpm, sometimes causing a stall, in auto
when this happened i parked it, changed the wires, distributor cap, now i have no spark, the engine turns over and everything, but no ignition.

anyone ever have some similar symptoms?

When our 2.8 was on the road, it had a random stalling problem at one point which was being caused by a loose connection at the distributor end of the distributor-to-coil harness.  The clip on the harness connector had lost it's "oomph"... solved via contact cleaner, dielectric grease, and a zip tie.

It would just die though... no warning or changes in motor pitch prior.

Flaky tach usually indicates a dying tach filter.  I can't remember for certain so this may be bunk, but a shorted-to-ground tach filter may be able to kill spark outright.

thanks, well i put a new distributor in it, my other one was in rough shape.. so now it starts but still tends to lack power and i can only get it up to 3000 rpm

I think what im gonna check next is the fuel filter and at the same time time it properly with a timing light
hope this works, and even though my contacts at the distributor look clean, i'll give that a good cleaning

thanks once again for the suggestions

Hey Man, dont feel bad, I once had a lemon fiero. My first car was a real let down after I loaded a ton of money into it and wasn't smart enough to check to see if the frame was in tact. But oh well, better to learn when i was 17. Now Im 24 im on my third fiero and things still aren't perfect, but thats Fieros for u. But I'll tell u one thing, When ever I got stuck, I definitely stopped and regrouped my ideas, talked to people smarter than me and even just walked out into my garage just to look at the mess I had and stare off into the future with hopes of someday having a car worth showing off. Then I took that next step. I tried something new. Always dabbled with my options and it sounds like thats what u r doing. So good for u. If u really like these cars then dont give up. It pays off in the end. I was actually at car shows this past year rubbing shoulders finally with some great people after I spent 2.5 long years under a leaky squeeky car.

Some days U feel like the bug and somedays U feel like the windshield. So just chin up and never give up. U will find the answers to any questions if you search hard enough. :) good luck.

Dime

thanks man, if im lucky ill have it good to go tomorrow, i gave in and tried getting it to my mechanic, limping to carp along the backroads at 60 km/h if i was lucky.. only to not be able to start her up less than a km away.. damn 65 dollar tow....... but it turns out the timing chain was messed up and was skipping or something.. that'll do it.
the one benefit ive gotten out of this is seeing the engine bay in pieces without getting my hands dirty
now this means i have almost all the engine accessories replaced, starter, distributor, water pump.
i just hope the money put into the timing chain will get it going again.

it is a love i have for this car, i dont think there is too much to go wrong as it is all a learning experience, and a whole lot of fun in return.
i hope that my next post isnt in this thread, as I post in this thread when im frustrated with my baby.

Who's your mechanic in Carp?

awe man Ur lucky U have a chain. My previous 87 Se blew out on the highway and It turned out to be one of those Gear on Gear set ups. 1200 dollars later I got my car back and it was all out of alignment and unresponsive. Had to get it retuned by another mechanic. I hope ur next post is somehting cheerier too. Im totally missing my car right now its just sitting in my garage waiting for the spring so I can take her in and find out about my own engine knock. So chin up. Be greatful ur engine turns over :) I kno I am and thats what makes us the select few fortunate:)

my mechanic is steve flaherty, right on carp rd. swore he never would work on a fiero but decided to be nice to me, haha
but after the new chain was put in, still wont fire, so now we're waiting on a new cpu.. hope it solves it.. i need my my wheels back so i dont have to drive my dads ford windstar sport, even though im fortunate to be able to borrow it...

if it doesnt solve it.. i dont know what i will do...

Is you car silver?

yupp thats the one

Ahhh, I saw it sitting there. Looks in good shape.

its in perfect shape, minus the running condition haha

Are you sure he never worked on Fiero's in the past. I seem to remember a notchie with roof mounted air intakes sitting there all the time a few years ago.

he has worked on them but despises them
i know the guy accross the street has a black one with a  v8, or somewhere around him

I got it back!
so after the wires, distributor, timing chain, water pump, and cpm were changed, oh and i forgot to mention the wiring problems, SHE LIVES :)
I had a conversation with my mechanic after picking it up and he said he was frustrated and almost torched the thing, understandable after not getting the thing running time after time..

but I thought i would share my happiness as it has been a month since its ran (even though all you have yours in storage) i've missed driving it, and driving it in the snow makes me want to always have a winter fiero, even if in the future I have a summer fiero!

I've seen the black notchie sitting across the road from him. I never would of guessed it had a V8 in it. I have not seen it lately.

Well, this thing is really starting to get on my nerves....
but after having it running for a week, with basically everything replaced, it has died again...
I ended up driving through a puddle and it just turned off.
waited, started for 1 minute, died...
I'm thinking  the prime suspect is oil pressure guage. oh and the tach reads 0 when cranking, and when it does start up it reads the usual 300-400
but would that indicate ecm? cause that was just replaced with the distributor

The oil pressure sending unit has nothing to do with a no-go condition unless your fuel pump relay is not functioning.  If you can hear the fuel pump prime for a couple of seconds when you turn the key to RUN (but not all the way to START), there's nothing wrong with your fuel pump relay.

No reading from the tach while cranking simply means that the tach isn't receiving a signal from the ignition system - it doesn't mean that any specific component has failed.

Check & re-check all connections to the ignition module, including the one underneath the cap which comes from the pick-up coil.  They all should be clean, dry, and secure.  Do the same for the connection to the ignition coil from the ignition module.

Check for the presence of heat sink grease between the ignition module & distributor base plate.  Overheating modules will sometimes quit for a while until they've had a chance to cool, then work for a short time until they heat up again.

Swap in a known-good ignition module if you have access to one.

Disconnect the 2-wire harness at the ignition coil which feeds the tach filter & instrument panel.  Like I said in my earlier post tach filters can kill the ignition when they fail.

well it was the ignition control module.. brand spankin new with the distributor...
so this makes me think that there is something else wrong with it,
so this heat sink grease? its just a grease below the control module? but even after it cooled, it wouldn't start again....
and normally, would this heat sink grease come with a  new distributor, because I knew nothing of this when I installed mine.

Heat sink grease is a dielectric, heat conducting paste which fills any small gaps between the distributor base plate & the back of the ignition module, improving transfer of heat from the module to the distributor.  It's often grey, white, or black, and is very thick - thicker in most cases than the heaviest "extreme pressure" grease available at a parts shop.

Ideally a new unit should have it installed, and I have in the past seen ignition modules sold with packets of heat sink grease in the box.  One would have to take a look to be certain though - unless you've been in to it since, only whomever assembled your distributor really knows if the grease is there or not.

yuup, i checked and I have the grease there

I just want to thank you D for your time and advice!
To be honest I hope not to seek your advice for mechanical issues for a good long time.

and in the future im sure this thread will be a troubleshooting guide for most issues..

I just realized how much time and money i've spent going from one problem to another