So I waited til it acted up again and wouldn't start, then swapped the relay and whammo, it fired right up. I thought I had it nailed for $35. Even swapped the battery and cleaned up the posts as they were corroded pretty good.

Had it sitting in the garage all weekend, took out the seats and everything else shampooable.

Had to back it out last night to put my wife's van in. Tried to start this morning and same deal. Turns over but no starting. You can definitely hear the relay click, and fuel pump run for a couple seconds. Which is easy to hear with no seats in the car and the trunk stripped down to nothing.

Back to trouble shooting. First thought was maybe the new relay is bad, but with the pronounced "click" and fuel pump sounds so clear, I would think something else.

And trying to push it back in the garage by yourself is a lot harder than I rememeber. Do these things gain a couple thousand pounds when it rains?

 

W/ No-start condition presented, check for 12V on the blk/yel wire at the distributor connector. If 12v is missing, you have a ignition switch assy problem.

If 12V present on blk/yel, then coil or ignitor issue seems likely. Check for spark when no-start condition is presented. Use tiiming light hooked to one spark plug lead. No flash means no spark. W/o a timing light, you can pull one spark plug lead, attach to spark plug, ground plug, and watch for bright, blue spark.

good luck

 

The ignition switch is a little funky at times. Pull the key and the door chime still goes off so it's definitely not 100% functioning correctly. Will check that out next. Thanks.

 

So I checked for Codes and am getting a Code 15.

Also checked for 12v at blk/yel wire on distributor connector. Has 12v when key turned to ON.

But........while going to the next step and pulling a plug wire to stick a screwdriver in to check for spark, I find the spark plug tubes full of oil. And not just a little, but a lot.

I know the tube seals go bad, but is this a totally unrelated issue, or all part of the same problem? Couldn't see spark, but have to try to get a better view while cranking it. thx

edit: While looking over plug wires at the distributor I noticed the contacts on one of them really corroded and bluish like a corroded battery terminal. All of the others were perfectly clean and normal.

edit: All this oil can't be helpful making a spark plug trying to fire. Doesn't make any sense to the intermittent nature of the problem though does it? With that much oil in there I would think it's all or nothing.

I'm just thinking out loud while I prepare for my wife to come home and see that I got nothing done today.

 

Code 15 indicates either ignitor or ECM issue since you have 12V on blk/yel at distributor. Further tests require a test harness or backprobing at ECU (difficult). I would suggest to try a new ignitor if no spark is confirmed.

In my experience, oil in spark plug tubes looks nasty but does not cause spark shorting and definitely not a cause of no-start.

good luck

 

Didn't get any farther troubleshooting last night, but it started on its own again.
I did yank all the carpet out and plan to head to carwash shortly to power wash the living daylights out of it. I thought it might be just a little shampooing in place, but its getting a full-on power wash. If it falls apart, so be it. Yuck.

 

Well its been about 400 miles now and still working as it should(knock on wood).
Replaced the fuel relay is the only part so far.
Shampooed, powerwashed, lysoled the whole interior, still smelled like smoke. Have had an ion machine running for about 22 hours in there now so we'll see how it smells later today.
Been getting about 27 mpg with a mix of driving so its paid for itself already in gas savings from my truck.