OK. am at my wits end with my car... it starts out with a week ago, my Temp. gauge started moving northward after highway driving then sitting in traffic. Also noticed the cooling fans were acting goofy, so I replaced thermostat, temp. sensor, flushed cooling system.
yesterday it almost overheated on me again as well, but night time coming home, I sat in my driveway idling for about 20 minutes, and the fans kicked on normally.

I have also had starting difficulty, leading up to today with no starting at all. I have went down the list, tuned up totally, cleaned TB, checked IACV, FITV, compression is good, no oil in water or vice versa, all vacuum are good, timing set only has barely 40k on it and all intact no leaking or anything out of place. Fuel pump is spinning up as should, spark is good on all 4 cylinders, coil is in correct volt range.


the starting difficulty, it took really long to catch, then it was almost like an old carburetor that has a bad choke. It would run rough around 500 RPM, then suddenly catch after 5-10 seconds and run fine. now its just turning over and not starting at all. ECM is also not throwing any codes..

 

Are you getting good spark on all four plugs?

While changing the t-stat did you happen to move/mess with the main ground wire near the t-stat housing.

 

that is something I discovered a little while ago. the #4 plug was covered in powdery black soot, the others were fine. would one sooty plug cause the whole car not to start? I didn't do anything with the ground strap other than re attach it after I replaced the thermostat

 

Pull the ground and give it a quick hit with some sandpaper - the wire eyelet and the surface where it contacts.....can't hurt and costs nothing but a few minutes of time.

Are the egr ports getting clogged and or the valve sticking open? I'm on a reach with these but it is known with age the ports will begin to clogg....small little mis-fire(s).

Then we all know what happens if the egr is "open" when the car is at idle...again I'm way out on that limb with these so take it as such.

Introduce fuel - carb cleaner or something along those line and see if it will start. A new set of NGK plugs is ~$12 investment....and if you are close to the ~24K mark, then they are almost due. While there it won't hurt to pull the cap and inspect the contacts on the cap and rotor.

Just me but the over heating was one thing and now "something" else is acting up....just my opinion and I've been wrong before.

 

I made sure the ground was clean before I put it back. new EGR last year, new plugs, new cap & rotor, the overheating is fixed, the thermostat was bad, but it was occouring the same time as the rest of this mess.


at this point I think the only 3 things I haven't replaced are the distributor, IACV, and fuel pump.

 

when you changed out your tstat did you open the nipple on the top of the housing to bleed it out? if not, this is what you do after filling rad and leaving cap off


1. start car
2. heat on max
3. open nipple on t-stat housing
4. add coolant until bubbles are no longer coming out of nipple
5. close nipple
6. top of rad
7. put a NEW rad cap back on
8. fill overflow tank to MAX
9. drive car and let it cool off
10. add fluid to overflow tank until it is at the min line when engine is cold
11. repeat 9 and 10 until level no longer drops below min line when cold

 

yeah i did all that. the overheating issue was nothing but a bad thermostat, and bad radiator cap. the starting issue still remains however. and my head gasket is fine, I don't have any oil/water mixture.

 

Have you tried to "introduce" a fuel source?

 

I haven't.. I assume you are referring to shooting starting fluid, or gas in the throttle body?

 

Yes, carb cleaner, starting fluid or something like that.....remove intake tube, open butter fly in TB....give it a good spray....try starting it.