Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 97 2L not starting

I've got a 97 I4 Contour GL 5sp that will crank but not start. I've been searching this forum for a while and found some leads but nothing has panned out yet.

The fuel filter has been replaced, there's 3/4 tank of gas, I can hear the fuel pump kick in and pressurize the line.

It has a good battery and it cranks like no tomorrow but it just doesn't catch, even a little. Pulling the spark plugs shows them rather worn down so I've replaced them as a "why not?" type thing. I've tried cranking it while grounding 2 different (new) plugs against the block and don't even see spark.

For some additional info, I was driving it daily with no problems starting and the next day it just wouldn't start, so its a sudden thing.

What is my next course of action, as I'm starting to run out of ideas? Any help would be much appreciated.

EDIT:

I've also checked the fuses and relays and they *appear* to be good.

Check fuse F4 in the underhood fusebox. It supplies power to the ignition coil.

If it is good, your likely culprits, in no particular order, are the crank sensor (pretty good chance), ignition coil, or the PCM.

Steve

Another update:

I have replaced the coil and the MAF (the MAF was previously flaking out and causing the CEL to light up, so figured I may as well since I'm at it) and it is still doing the same thing.

So I guess the crank sensor is next?

double check to make shure the spark plus had the .50 gap, make shure your wires arnt bad, check fr some orange around the ends of the wires i would try replacing the wires and chccking the gap first before replacing any major item, could also be distrubitor cap going bad

Last time I looked, there was no distributor cap on any Contour engine. Improper gap won't cause a complete loss of spark. The odds of the fault being the wires (all would have to be bad to get NO spark)is pretty slim.

Go to the coil plug, unplug it, turn the ignition to RUN (not START). Probe each of the pins in the connector. One of them HAS to have battery voltage on it. If not, troubleshoot the no power problem using the EVTM and a meter. If power is present on one of the pins, you are left with either a faulty crank sensor or a PCM fault.

I an referring to the 98 EVTM for a reference as I do not have a copy of the 97 set. I do not know if the fusebox layout is different or not but I am assuming that it is the same as the 98.

Steve

Thanks for the responses. You were pretty close to the problem. Looks like it ended up being that the wires going to the crank sensor were chewed through. Farking squirrels/rabbits. Reconnected the wires and it started right up. The gap was fine on the new plugs though, just to answer that suggestion.

Thanks for all the help.

Brandonb