good day all, i have a 1997 626 2.0L 5speed, w/ 189000 miles.

last night after i cleaned the engine/compartment w/ spray degreaser and then hosed off w/ the high pressure sprayer at a self-serve car wash, the car limped home on 2 cylinders with engine light flashing. i pulled the plug boots off the plugs, blew out the sleeves and reconnected plug wires.

it wanted to start, tach was jumping, and engine was trying to catch, but nothing doing. this morning i tried to start, same as last night, seeming to want to start, like it was sparking, but not starting. i then removed the negative battery cable for one minute to clear codes, and tried to start. now it just turned over w/ no evidence of spark or tach jumping.

any suggestions on what to check is greatly appreciated? I saw the posts on checking the tach for jump, possibly indicating an ignitor problem, but couldn't see anything like my problem.

as to some background, i am still getting 30+ mph on highway, it has started every day i've had it, (4+ years now, since 78k miles). recently the idle has been a bit erratic at times, especially while sitting at a stop. the normal idle is 750, but then it stumbles hard, down to about 500 rpm, and has on a few occasions stalled, but restarted immediatley. the idle at normal is also a bit erratic; i can feel the engine idling, whereas in the past it was very smooth.

 

You can see if the cylinders are sparking by pulling out on of the plugs and holding it with some isolated pliers. Leave the plug connected to the plug wire, and bring it down close to the heads/block to get it to arc to the steel (one person holds the plug while another cranks the car. Flip a coin to choose who holds the plug.

You can do this at each cylinder to see where the spark is going. If you're getting nothing, so up to the main distributor wire and try the same experiment. Then walk it back to the coil.

The water could have fried the coil or distributor. With that kind of mileage, the seals might not be what they used to be.

You can pull either of those parts and have them tested at an auto parts store. Most likely they'll do the check free of charge.

 

Oh yeah, while you're just checking spark, I'd pinch off the fuel line to avoid pumping raw fuel into a cylinder without a spark plug into it. It will also prevent you from flooding the car.

 

check electrical plugs going to distributor and or external coils or igniters if applicable, and take off dizzy cap and check for corrosion on the electrical points to see if they are good or not, and check for resistances in spark wires shortest wire should have lowest Ohms (resistance) to highest, should go in order... hope that helps out a bit...

 

i actually wouldn't recomend pinching off the fuel line i'd rather just find the fuse for the EFI and pull it... pinching off the fuel line whats he thinking???