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2002 Cavalier stalled, no spark

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Old February 26th, 2012, 12:31 PM
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Default 2002 Cavalier stalled, no spark

The wife stalled the car, refired once and ran rough for a few seconds and died. Turns over, no spark. I did some troubleshooting and there is no power going to the IGN MDL fuse in the fusebox. Could this be a bad ignition switch?

Car turns over, has no engine codes using an Autozone code reader.

In the last three months I had a bad fuel pump, replaced and ran great. I had a misfire under acceleration and replaced the Ignition control module, coil pack and new AC Delco spark plugs and immediately fixed the problem. This was four weeks prior....

I changed the crank position sensor prior to troubleshooting, no change.
Old February 26th, 2012, 1:29 PM
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Welcome to the forum. The same leg of the ignition switch powers the PCM fuse, BCM/CLU fuse, ERLS fuse, and TURN-B/U fuse. If you don't see good voltage on these other fuses with key on but do see it on other fuses like BCM fuse or WIPER fuse, the ignition switch may be the culprit.
Old February 27th, 2012, 6:53 PM
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Thanks for the warm welcome EinST!!!

I tested power at all the suggested fuses, nothing, zero volts. I have 12.4 volts at the battery. Car cranks over, so the ground and positive lead cables should be fine. I put a battery charger on and it jumps to a fault mode. If I disconnect the battery leads it will accept a charge fine.

I think I have a short somewhere. Can this still be in the ignition switch? Not sure where to look next...

Thanks in advance for all the awesome help!
Old February 27th, 2012, 7:06 PM
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No voltage on any of the fuses I listed with key on? The supply side of the ignition fuse is the IGN fuse in the underhood fuse block. Make sure it's not out and it's always hot with battery voltage. If so, ignition switch becomes very suspicious.
Old February 28th, 2012, 7:04 AM
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Yeah, I checked them with the key in the run position. I just checked the IGN fuse as well, no voltage-zero zip. Fuse is good.

If I read the reply correctly the next step is the ignition switch? Any other thoughts? How hard is it to change out the ignition switch? Thanks guys.
Old February 28th, 2012, 11:04 AM
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That makes no sense at all. The IGN fuse sits between the battery and ignition switch. There's no voltage at the IGN fuse and yet you can turn the key and the starter engages? Verify continuity between the battery negative terminal and ground reference you're using for the voltage measurements. Alternatively, check the voltage at the battery positive terminal using the same ground reference.
Old February 28th, 2012, 9:30 PM
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Its been an interesting day! Battery voltage dropped some, its now at 11.56 volts verses the 12.3 I had yesterday. When I test for continuity from the ground to negative terminal I get .03 ohms. Then positive terminal to ground reference I have 11.56 volts.

I then removed the IGN fuse in engine bay and measured across the two connectors. I had 11.56 volts!!!! Apparently my tester wasn't able to measure the voltage across the two pins on top of the fuse. I then checked the IGN MDL fuse inside the car using the same method and have voltage.

So for my own sanity, I retested for spark at the plugs. This time I used a lighted tester at night, tried multiple ground points and no spark.

Thinking I need to check for voltage going into the 3 week old ignition control module, is that the black and pink wires? Camshaft position sensor bad? I feel its odd that my battery is slowly draining and I get a fault from the charger when the battery is connected in the car. I must have a short somewhere, but wouldn't I be blowing fuses then? Starting to lose my hair!!!
Old February 28th, 2012, 10:09 PM
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So, you're measuring the voltage across the gap where the fuse would be? That's going to give you a false reading, depending on the load downstream. The way I do it is to touch the black probe (actually an alligator clip) to a known good ground and then stick the red probe into the hole on the fuse.

The other thing is, are we talking about a real spark plug tester or just a little test light? If the latter, the current is so low that it isn't going to do a thing. I'd rather hang a real spark plug at the end of the wire and then touch the ground electrode to the engine block or alternator housing (have to remember to keep the sparks away from the battery or anything flammable).

The pink wire does power the ICM with key on. You may want to get the ICM tested where you bought it.
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