Sick 90 90q

[Brett Dikeman]

At 6:29 PM -0500 2/4/04, Lino M. Valadas wrote:

>  (I must be nuts it's -20 C up there)
>
>The battery is dead now.

Pull the battery inside and put it on a maintenance charger- at those 
temperatures, discharged, it will freeze- at 0% capacity the battery 
will freeze at 7 degrees F...so it MUST come in.  Make sure it has 
warmed up somewhat before putting it on the charge, and check 
electrolyte levels; if you try to charge a frozen(or even partly 
frozen) battery, it will go boom and the result will not be pretty. 
If one cell is low, charging it like that won't be very good for it. 
Use ONLY distilled or deionized water, slightest mineral content will 
do a number on the chemistry.

Battery Tender is one choice, Yuasa also resells some units that work 
nicely.  Any local ATV/marine/motorcycle shop should have 'em(I 
bought my Yuasa from a local motorcycle shop).

>   He's had several attempts at starting it with
>boosts from friends and CAA to no avail.  The fuel pump buzzes, so I assume
>fuel is not an issue.  It appears that sometimes the engine almost catches
>but never starts.  The car has a history of being very hard to start when
>hot.
>
>Any tips on where to look first, would be greatly appreciated.  Even though
>I'm a 10v kind a guy,  I'm not familiar with the 90 90q.

If it's barely catching, that's decently good news, means mostly 
everything is working -about- right, just not right enough.  I'm no 
90 expert, but the coolant sensor is a frequent suspect in these 
cases, I think.  Check both sensor and connector not only for clean 
contacts, but that they are properly aligned- I recall a problem with 
the female side of the connector getting pushed back and no longer 
making contact on some of these cars.

Pull a plug after trying to crank it.  Is it wet?  If so, ignition 
problem or super-rich mixture.  Dry?  Lean mixture, and hence 
probably a problem with cold enrichment.  On CIS cars like the 4000, 
there's a valve for that(which should be checked as well), on EFI its 
handled by the ECU automatically.

Bring a copy of the Bentley, or at least have the specifications for 
the sensor(ie temp versus resistance range) and the valve if there is 
one(ie, what its normal resistance should be.)  Check for supply 
voltage on the right pins, etc.

Hope this helps!

Brett
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