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Cadillac Repair/88 caddy eldorado no spark at coil or distributor

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Expert: - 10/14/2011


Question
QUESTION: Hi ther Rob. Well its a caddy eldo 88 throttle body 4.5 lt. Bought it used ran dam good for about a week. So i passed up a few cars on the freeway going fast tapped the brakes once and i had to coast off the freeway ramp. So yes it just died on my.Oh yeah the car wouldnt start when i bought it so the guy had a new fuel pump put in so he says.So I checked for spark ther was non. I then just bought a new pick up coil, coil n distributor cap n rotor installed it and the car started rite up. I just didnt have time to really check it so I bought all those parts n it wrked. So the car ran good for about another week when again i hit the brakes hard and it died once again. I still have no spark from coil. the coil is 3weeks old had it checked n works fine. i also checked for bad wires but ther all good.Im sorry i dont have to much info on this for you but im dead in the water n dont know what it could be.Someone told me the alarm has something to do with it but im not sure it does. Any help from a pro like you would be greatly appriciated, any questions u mite have just let me know hope to hear from u soon thanks FRANK

ANSWER: Hello,

Bad news, I don't have all the answers, but I know this: The alarm factory or after market would not give way to potential liability for an engine stalling anywhere.
Any alarm, anti-theft system is only linked to the start circuit and once engine is running, alarm is disabled.

The standard answer by dealers or anyone is that it has to be an alarm issue, no matter what the problem is. This is because unless someone actually understands how the system works, it is the standard answer for all woes.

At least you can eliminate that. Other than that, don't know the answer to your problem

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---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes Im sorry kind of got lost when I was trying to give you some of the car problems I had. When someone mentioned the alarm I forgot that the oiwner had it dissabled a couple years ago. I called the previous owner and told him what you replied. He again mentioned that the alarm had bin dissabled. sorry about that. So i had mentioned to you that the first time it stalled off the freeway the car had no ignition spark. So i had no time to really look into it so i bought a new coil cap n rotor and a pickup coil also. replaced that and fired rite up. So in my head i was thinking it was definatly one of those components that did not work. replaced them car fired up Now my question to you is once again i have no spark from the coil so the car doesnt turn on it does once in a while after cranking it a few times and spraying starter fluid. I think if it had spark with starter fluid it would definatly turn on rite? is ther anything i can check after explaining it to you this time. Thers fuel in the lines thats for sure.So if you think of anything else i can check or do please oh please enlighten me. thank you sir once again.

Answer
Hello,

Thank you for your rating. It means a lot because I volunteer my time to answer the questions and its great  to be appreciated.
As you see, if I don't know an answer, I am not afraid to say I don't know.
I am glad I could give you some insight. It gets very frustrating working on these vehicles as you are finding out. They are not easy to diagnose anymore without specialized equipment.

Good Luck and God Bless!


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Rob Painter

Expertise

Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet. My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine. This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle: Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?

Experience

Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.

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