just plain quit running

[iowabucks]

Hey everyone, My daughter has a 200 PT Cruiser. I became a member of this forum to try and help her out when she has problems along the way. We did have to replace a cracked head early on, but for the most part the last two years have been relativly trouble free.

She called me today and said she was driving down the road and the motor just quit. Her and her brother got it off the road onto a parking lot. She had to get to work so they left it there and gave me a call. I've been busy today but will be getting out there in a couple hours, so i thought i would pose a quick qestion and hopefully get an answer by the time i get there.

Anybody have any ideas of what to check that could cause the motor to quit. I realize thats kind of a broad question. I though it was an electrical problem at first. They just told me it''s not electrical. The motor just died and wont start up. I'll just check for fuel and spark i guess and go from there.

She said it will crank over, but wont fire. They didn't smell any gas under the hood so i could check the fuel pump fuse. Maybe it's blown. I would rather see that than a bad fuel pump. But then again, don't fuel pumps usually give you a little heads up before they go out? As in running bad. At least the ones i had go bad slowly got worse.

[CREWZIN]

You didn't get the year right when you posted but I'm guessing it's either a 2000/2001. Which means you probably have a few miles on it. If your anywhere around the 80-100,000 miles or more, my guess is that the timing belt has broken. Hopefully your daughter was just cruising along at a modest speed so you might get away with just the belt and water pump. It's a non-interference engine and most owners that go to far before changing the belt are pretty lucky. A lot of car wind up needing a new short block.

This is all a guess on my part as just saying the engine died is pretty vague. Did you check the computer for stored fault codes? That can usually narrow the problem down.

[iowabucks]

It is a 2000 model. And also did have the timing belt changed when it had the head replaced. It does have about 140,000 miles on it, only a couple thousand since the new belt.

I found that the plugs were not getting any spark. Just using a screwdriver and trying to ground it onto something metal. It seemed to have some fuel pressure at the fuel rail. Not alot, but releasing it and after cranking over again it built up pressure again, so hopefully not fuel related.

Can the coil just go out in a split second?

I need to figure out how to test the coil.

I have a cheap $30 multitester from Radio Shack. I just hate to change the coil and that not be the problem. Low on bucks right now.

Tommorrow i am going to take the upper intake off to reach the coil easier and test to make sure the harness is getting some voltage to the coil. I'm just not sure how muchg there should be. Hopefully if that is alright, i'll just have to test the coil. I know there is alot of voltage there and don't want to burn up my tester.

[CREWZIN]

Out of the thousands of owners that come here with problems, I can't remember even one where the coil was at fault. Saying that, it can happen.

Back to the computer. Have you check for fault codes?

[iowabucks]

Fault codes as in check engine light coming on? She said the check engine light had been on for some time. I think i will also go out and get me an OBDII tester in the morning. and let you know what i find out.

I have been doing alot of research on this and do see where usually it is not the coil gone bad, but i think i may start another thread just to check it and be sure.

Also saw where there is an ASD relay in the fusebox that could be involved. I saw where you can swap it with the horn relay to check. Thats on my list of things to try also.

[Hooligan]

Before you spend the money on the scanner, do the key dance. From ACC position, turn key forward to start (do NOT start), and back to ACC 3 times. If there is a fault stored it will show up in the odometer screen. It will read P0000 or you will get either the word DONE or -----. If the code is there, you usually can Google it.

[quicksilverdon]

Since the Engine light is on, start with codes - atht will give clues.
Hooligan gave a quick "how to", here's an expanded one:
How to retrieve fault codes.

[iowabucks]

I did the Key dance routine and came up with 3 codes:

P0320 - Cranshaft position sensor
P1684 - Battery has been disconnected in the last 50 starts.
P0420 - Catalytic seems inefficient (wouldn't think that would be the problem).

I also bought an Innova 3100 just because i have always needed one. Funny thing was it only saw the 1684 code. I don't know why a more expensive reader wouldn't show at least the crank sensor code?

Going out to get the sensor, but i will check the wiring to and from it to make sure thats not the problem before swapping it out.

Is that the route you guys would take?

[CREWZIN]

If your gonna throw a sensor part at it, make sure you buy it from Chrysler. Others have bought sensors from aftermarket stores and have found out some don't work.

[iowabucks]

Well it turned out to be something cheap to fix. It was obvious the wiring harness was rubbing on the rack and pinion and had broken a wire. Although it wasn't real easy to reach, we did get it crimped back together and it's running good now. Took the part back. That was nice.

Thanks everyone for their help.

Jerry.