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2000 Accent GL NO START issue.

5K views 47 replies 5 participants last post by  wiscoPat 
#1 ·
Hey all.. I'm pretty new around these boards and new(ish) to Hyundai..

So here's the situation..
About a year and a half ago, I acquired a 2000 Hyundai Accent GL with 68,000mi. for $500. Long story short, the car belonged to a friend of the wife who sold the car to me because of a trans. issue. Turned out to be a throttle control sensor.:cool:
Since that time, I have stuck a considerable amount of time and some cash into it. @74,500 I have replaced a front wheel bearing, welded flex tubing from exhaust manifold to cat., replaced fuel filter, fuel pump, front brake rotors, pads, rear brakes, drums, shoes, hardware, throttle position sensor, idle air flow sensor, cleaned: MAS, throttle body., replaced cam position sensor, crank position sensor.

I have been having issues with the engine starting hard.. firing and chugging then dying on first attempt. Second attempt will start but run with some engine vibration in park and neutral but seemingly stressed when in gear.
The vehicle drives with plenty of pep, but at stops in gear the motor vibrates and seems strained. I have been experiencing stalling when the engine gets to operating temp..about 20 minutes to a half hour into the trip, nearly stranding me twice. Once the car dies it takes a considerable amount of time to restart. Now the car will not start at all. It cranks and seems to have compression. I pulled off the top timing belt cover and it looks the the belt had been replaced at some point as the teeth are sharp and seemingly intact. Being that I didn't acquire the vehicle til the odo read 68k, I can't say for sure that this isn't a stock TB..?

Now when the ignition is switched to on position (ACC) there is a electrical buzzing coming from under the hood from the idle air control valve. It doesn't seem normal for it to be making that switch buzz sound.. again, not knowing much about Hyundai or modern (read: post 1980) cars, I could be wrong.

If anyone can offer any insight I would appreciate it. I kinda like this little car and would like to be able to consider it reliable. Thanks, James
 
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#4 ·
I'm no Accent expert, James. Would love to help. There's some pretty smart cookies on here that will hopefully chime in. It's Sunday, lot of stuff going on during the weekends to drag them away from their PC's. They may be on later this evening. So, don't give up hope.
 
#6 ·
Sounds like a fuel /air problem at idle... Any error codes from the ecu?

Start with the basics. Check your plugs and wires. Look for vacuum leaks. These engines are known to have faulty intake manifold gaskets if original. Good news is that the new ones have been revised!

Another thought is a leaking or sticking injector. Pull each plug and look for signs of running lean or rich.

A compression test is a very good idea as well. The test gauge isn't expensive and you'll use it again

That should be enough to get you started.
 
#7 ·
No codes. No check engine light. I did replace a cracked throttle body gasket. The plugs are new. NGK standard non-fancy irridiums as I have heard these engines don't perform any better with them. I will pull plugs today and check that out. Any ideas why the IACV would be making a weird loud buzz when ignition is in ACC position? Is it possible I installed a defective new unit?
 
#10 ·
Feel pretty stupid about now. We will see if a coil pack r&r is the ticket.
Well, Pat, hate to tell you this, but the line is long and continuous for anyone that has had those exact same feelings at one time or the other. Get in the back of the line with the rest of us. :laughing:

Good luck on the new suspicions. Hope that's the ticket and works out in your favor. Let us know, either way.
 
#12 ·
Well, just finished install on new coil pack. Alas.. still no spark! Getting to my wits end with this car about now. I am not throwing any codes, so its exceedingly difficult for me to diagnose. It looks as though this car beat me.. for now.

I have all new ignition control parts installed- crankshaft pos sensor, camshaft pos sensor.

I would really like to get this figured out as I have far to much time and cash stuck into this to sell it and make my money back.. Ideas?? Please??
 
#18 ·
Yep.. Been through all that.
Fuel to rail is good. Haven't checked pressure. No shrader valve on rail. I shot some ether into the throttle body and it fired.. Chugged and died… so now appears that there is spark. Could the timing belt have jumped a tooth or two?? I'm gonna check for tdc next.
 
#19 ·
i doubt thats the problem...you'd still get spark if the timing belt was off. it would just run like crap, and maybe not start....but still there would be spark.

the crank position sensor is another somewhat common issue that can cause this...no signal from the crank sensor and ecu won't fire anything off....but then you tossed fuel into the TB and got it to fire?

have you checked the pump is running when you're trying to start? throwing fuel in there and getting something would indicate a fueling issue for sure.
 
#20 ·
Had already replaced the crankshaft pos sensor and camshaft position sensor just before it died. The fuel pump and filter are new as well. I checked for fuel and plugs are wet. My guess is that the timing jumped and is creating a irratically timed spark situation. At this point, I am going to pull it apart and have a look. I am also going to double check fuel pump ground and functionality.
 
#22 ·
if coils/wire/plugs are good, we know you're getting fuel, timing is fine, cam and crank sensors have been replaced (consider if this was possibly caused by replacing the sensors! defects happen!) but it sounds like its down to not getting spark....confirm with an indicator light or old timing light....there's only a few things that would cause the ECU to not want to fire the plugs.

you've knocked the crank sensor off with that one....again, check wiring there. maybe damage from replacement. check you're getting air ok (ie. no strange blockages in the intake anywhere) and after that there isn't much left except the ECU itself...

do you know anyone with the same car you can swap the ECU with to test? its not a cheap part even at a junkyard, so i would want to confirm its toast. another option is to have a *good* dealership (yes i know that's hard to find!) check the ECU for you. probably cost you $80...but cheaper than a new ECU.

before doing that, try to confirm that you are in fact getting fuel when you try to start (sounds like it is) and that you are NOT getting spark.

that right there would rule out the fuel pump as an issue, so you can skip the pump ground. unless its almost nothing going in, the car should try to start at least without enough fuel going in.
 
#23 · (Edited)
if coils/wire/plugs are good, we know you're getting fuel, timing is fine, cam and crank sensors have been replaced (consider if this was possibly caused by replacing the sensors! defects happen!) but it sounds like its down to not getting spark....confirm with an indicator light or old timing light....there's only a few things that would cause the ECU to not want to fire the plugs.

you've knocked the crank sensor off with that one....again, check wiring there. maybe damage from replacement. check you're getting air ok (ie. no strange blockages in the intake anywhere) and after that there isn't much left except the ECU itself...

do you know anyone with the same car you can swap the ECU with to test? its not a cheap part even at a junkyard, so i would want to confirm its toast. another option is to have a *good* dealership (yes i know that's hard to find!) check the ECU for you. probably cost you $80...but cheaper than a new ECU.

before doing that, try to confirm that you are in fact getting fuel when you try to start (sounds like it is) and that you are NOT getting spark.

that right there would rule out the fuel pump as an issue, so you can skip the pump ground. unless its almost nothing going in, the car should try to start at least without enough fuel going in.
The reason I had installed new sensors, was to try to remedy this issue. I kept the old crank sensor and already tried installing it to see if maybe... agghh, I have tried just about everything with this car.

I don't know anyone with one of these cars. So an ECM would have to be purchased. I have seen them on ebay, used for $50-95.00. I have a ton of time and now $$$ sunk in this car. At this point, I would lose my shirt if I were to try to dump it off. The vehicle has 74,500 original miles on it and aside from this issue has been superbly reliable. It's nothing fancy as we all know, but with my hours at work being slashed in half, I need to hang onto this thing.

It seems to fire only when I introduce ether to the throttle body.. aside from that, it does not run. I had all the plugs out (one by one) to check their condition and to look for spark and I saw nothing. The plugs smelled like gas and were wet from it. Baffled.
I should also mention that with the ignition in the run position, the IACV makes a buzzz sound. With the erratic spark sometimes but seemingly not always thing going on and no check engine light with key in and in run position, I am beginning to think ECM. Once I have the timing belt/accessory belt job buttoned up, I will focus on yanking the ECM and toting it on the bus to the local Hyundai dealer to see if they can bench test it or whatever they do to determine if it is fongoo.
 
#27 ·
It fires then chugs/dies when I spray ether into the throttle body..
Seems to have plenty compression as I was turning the cam shaft to line up TDC this afternoon. I have not connected a compression tester. The car ran strong before all of this started going down. Regular oil changes, no jackrabbit starts, driven like a grandpa.. I will be heading to Harbor Freight tomorrow to grab a compression gauge.

If you can connect a scanner to the ecu, and it gives you a reading and says no codes, that means the ecu is working, has not detected an error. Assume the ecu is good.
Would a scanner work with ECM disconnected and out of car? Should there not be a check engine light on when the key is in the run position prior to cranking?
 
#28 ·
It's weird. When I pull a plug and snap it into its wire boot, I see no spark against ground. Tried all 4 that way. Very inconsistent as it seems to fire when I intro starting fluid. Not thinking the engine is toast. Seems (to me) like the computer is shot.
 
#29 ·
ODB II is not a perfect world. When you spray ether in it and it runs, that tells me the ecu is trying to work, the crank sensor is trying to work. No ecu light on the dash might mean the bulb is burnt out or not present, I.e. somebody removed the bulb, like I have on occasion.

Are you sure the spark is good, i.e you removed the plug and cranked it and it made a strong, consistent blue spark?
 
#32 ·
The check engine lamp was working (@ ignition RUN position) until recently.
The last time I checked for spark yesterday, I had no consistent strong blue anything. I tried the ether just for shiggles and to my astonishment, the engine fired, chugged and died.

I'd still exhaust every other possibility before I started messing with the ecu. Weak spark can be a number of things. You replaced the coil... are you sure the connectors on the coil are real good, mine were disintegrated into pieces. Sometimes when you replace the crank sensor, the silicone "O" ring gets stuck in the hole such that now you have two "O" rings in there, so signal is impaired. Double check the connections again.
I have installed and reinstalled the sensors (cam and crank) only (1) 0-ring per. Coil connections are in great shape. All intact. This car has seen very little use in its 14 years. I know temp extremes have a tendency to degrade plastic bits, but this car is clean and well maintained and I see no evidence of disintegrating connectors. Coil is brand new Korean unit.
 
#30 ·
I'd still exhaust every other possibility before I started messing with the ecu. Weak spark can be a number of things. You replaced the coil... are you sure the connectors on the coil are real good, mine were disintegrated into pieces. Sometimes when you replace the crank sensor, the silicone "O" ring gets stuck in the hole such that now you have two "O" rings in there, so signal is impaired. Double check the connections again.
 
#34 ·
Oh yeah, I know.. Turning the camshaft to line TDC was a "B" to do. (left spark plugs in) I could feel my effort having to increase on the compression stroke and lessen on the exhaust stroke, so I am confident that it has good compression...although, I have yet to confirm it is within spec range with a gauge. No scary blue spark. ECM...hmmmmm idk.
 
#33 ·
I dunno, maybe you do have a bad ecu. It almost never happens unless you did something horrible like hooked the battery cables on backwards, or the car got flooded, etc. Make sure you get the same part number and it should plug-&-play. But warning.... it almost always happens (at least on this forum) that people buy another ecu and it's no help whatsoever. But at least you'll know it's not the ecu.
 
#35 ·
I have a small outboard motor for my sea canoe. It ran great for years. This year, it started dying on me here and there. I pulled the plug, it made blue spark.... but it wasn't SCARY. I cleaned the carbs three times, etc. Pulled and pulled it... no start. Finally I changed the plug... VAROOOM, no more problems. SCARY SPARK GOOD.
 
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