Car died going over a pothole

What died? Does it turn over?

There are so many problems that can cause a no start condition. Going over a deep pothole can shock the car into electrical failures and more.

Obviously, the mechanic you chose didn't guess correctly. If you paid him, he owes you either fixing the car or giving you your distributor and money back.

You need to check for spark while cranking. (Cranking means rotating the engine via the starter)

If you have no spark, find out why. If you do, go on to the other systems of the car like fuel, etc.

Tell us more and maybe we can help.

Yes. I should have provided more details:

- if I turn the key i hear the engine turn over but it doesn't actually start.

- The mechanic also said the timing belt is not broken because he saw the crankshaft turning.

- The mechanic did some tests and he said the distributor was bad. Not sure what he did but he had some equipment hooked up to it.

- When he gave the car back he put the old distributor back in.

How Do I check for a spark? Any next steps would be helpful.

Thanks !

Okay...the crankshaft turning has nothing at all to do with the condition of the timing belt. The timing belt can be broken and the crankshaft pulley can still turn.

If you take the top off the distributor, you can see if the distributor shaft is turning in step with the crankshaft as you turn the engine over. What you cannot see is if the system has "jumped" time. That means, if the timing belt slipped, you may be so far away from the timing sequence that the engine will never start.

You can pull the spark plug on your number 1 cylinder and find out exactly when the piston in this cylinder is at top dead center (TDC). The piston may be at TDC during a power stroke (plug firing) or during a nonpower stroke. BUT if you bring the piston to TDC, you can look inside the distributor and see where the rotor is pointing. If it is pointing at the cable for cylinder 1, you are probably okay with the timing belt. OR if it is pointing at the complementary cylinder to No 1, you may still be okay.

You can use a cheap spark plug tester to see if you are getting ignition voltage. It is simply a spark gap that fits between the spark plug cable and the spark plug. If you turn the engine and see the spark, then at least you have ignition voltage. It may, or may not, be coming at the right time but at least you have it.

If you have access to a timing light, you can see if the spark is coming at the right place in the cycle.

I would assume you do not have these tools. You may need to go to a competent mechanic. The information you have given me so far on this one does not inspire confidence.

Ask any question. I will try to walk through it with you.

Find out where the fuel safety shutoff valve is located (I assume it has

Ive seen those cause a lot of problems on Ford products. Dont know if it applies to GM.

It'll keep him outta trouble while he's hunting it, don't you think?;) s

It doesn't

Nor does it apply to a Toyota which is what a Geo Prizm is.

Don

Yeah the prism is indeed the twin of the corolla. The spark plug tester you are describing... is this an in-inline tester? Sorry if this is a dumb question but the sparkplug is way down in the hole, so to test the sparkplug do I remove it or just leave it in place when using this in-line tester?

Not sure what this is, but take a look at this ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP INERTIA SWITCH for the 1994 Geo Prizm at following link: >>

If you have obstruction problems of this type, just take an old sparkplug (or a new one for that matter), and install it onto the end of your ignition cable. Place the threaded end of the sparkplug onto a metal surface (chassis ground). Have somebody crank the engine over while you watch that dummy sparkplug to see if you are getting a spark. You can check each cable separately this way to see if you (1) have ignition voltage in general or (2) if some of the cables are perhaps faulty..

Since your car wont start or run at all, your first goal is to be sure that your ignition is working. If not, you may have isolated the offending system, but not yet the cause.

In general, there are three elements that must be present and functioning for your car to start and run: (1) you must have fuel being introduced into the engine at the appropriate ratio to air (2) you must have ignition (spark), at the proper sequence (timing) (3) you must have compression, again at the proper sequence.

These three are key. There are lots of subsystems, and fiddlybits, but if you can isolate which system is not working properly, it helps you work toward a cure.

For example, if you have no ignition voltage, you might have a bad ignition module, crankshaft sensor, engine or powertrain control module, bad connection, etc.. Lots of possibilities.

If you have no fuel, you may have activated a shutoff switch (safety switch designed to cut off fuel flow after an impact), have a bad injector or carburetor, plugged filter, plugged fuel line, out of gas, bad fuel pump.

If you lack compression you may have burned valves, a damaged valvetrain drive belt or chain, etc.

Some of the parts I have mentioned probably dont exist on a Prism. Most cars now are fuel injected and have no carburetor. I am speaking generically.

You will save a lot of time if you take this car to a really competent mechanic. The one you took it to before apparently was not so very capable. If you are tight on money, or just want to learn, maybe 'do it yourself' will be a solution.

The problem is your mechanic. Get someone that will actually locate the problem. It could be anything. Because of when it happened, I would tend to look for loose connections and loose grounds, but the first thing to do is look at the codes coming out of the computer and see which sensors the computer is seeing properly.

What led the mechanic to think the distributor was bad, and why didn't he continue finding the problem after he found that wasn't it?

--scott

Good news. A friend of a friend who is a mechanic came to the house to look at the car. He found one of the relays to be bad. It was in the main engine compartment box and was labeled as "EFI F/HTR". He found an identical relay from the inside fusebox of the car and used it in place of the bad one. The car started!!!

Now i'm trying to figure if I need to replace the relay that he removed from the inside compartment. I lokoed in the owner's manual and all the fuse box and relays are described but this specific portion of the fuse box is not given in the book. I'm wondering.. .could this be a spare relay?

No

Don