My car has sat all winter, but was started periodically with no problems. Last time I tried to start it, the battery was dead (was new about 4 months before I stopped driving it). Charged the battery, cranked but wouldn't fire. Put gas in it, thought maybe it was empty from starting it during the winter. Still wouldn't start. Pulled a spark plug, no spark. It has two coil packs, so I pulled a plug from the other one, no spark. Thought a short was draining the battery and preventing the spark, so I unplugged coil packs and the radio interference capacitors and let it sit overnight. The next day the battery was still charged. Plugged the capacitors back in but left the coils unplugged, the next day the battery was just about dead. Would the capacitors cause battery drain and prevent current from passing to the coil packs and thus prevent spark? Or would a bad alternator (which I know would cause battery drain in certain cases) prevent spark? Shouldn't spark still come from the fully charged battery?
May 11, 2009 at 9:20 AM