Expert: Roland Finston - 1/28/2005

Question
Wow! You responded quick. Thanks. Well that mechanic said that he has tested the fault codes and it is not showing any fault. The ignition switch is OBD-2. He has tested the distributor cap's built in resister and it turns but has no fire (no electric running through?) He also said that the engine is a 2.5 V-6. Hope this information enlightend you. Thank you so much for your time, Sir. Theresa. 95 Chrysler Cirris

Answer
I am not certain where he is testing for spark (at the coil or at a spark plug wire) but the manual says to check for spark at the coil first. The manual says for this test:
"Use a new spark plug and spark plug cable for this test.
1. Insert a new spark plug into the new spark plug boot.  Ground the plug to the engine (use the block, not the head for a ground).
2.Remove the distributor cap.
3. Plug test spark plug cable in coil tower.
4. Crank engine and look for spark across the electrodes of the spark plug. If there is no spark, check for:
- continuity from power control module (PCM) pin 11 to 6-way connector at distributor  terminal 1 (black/gray wire, ignition coil driver)
- continuity between ground and 6-way connector pin 2 (black wire, ground)
- continuity between PCM pin 6 and 2-way connector at distributor pin 2 (black/red? could be dark green/orange, autoshutdown relay output)
- correct distributor cap resistance (he says he checked that).
If all circuits show continuity replace the distributor assembly. If they all don't, then the specific broken wire needs to be replaced.
But first he could also check the coil itself:
Measure the primary coil resistance at the 2-way distributor connector pin 2; it should be 0.6 to 0.8 ohms.
Measure the secondary coil resistance between the coil tower and each pin of the 2-way connector, it should be 12 to 18k ohms.
He could check for whether there is 12V at the 2-way connector pin 2 when he is cranking to see if the autoshutdown relay is closing and getting 12V on that pin. If it doesn't do it for a full 5 seconds of cranking then either the ASD relay is bad or the signals from the cam or crank sensor aren't being produced (but those problems should set a code). So as I suggested earlier the cheapest quick part substitution is to replace the ASD relay in the power distribution center.
I hope this is helpful to the mechanic.
Roland