Hey guys,

I went to go pick up my EVO today, which has been shipped across the country. The car has an AEM EMS. Anyways, when the guys try to pull the car up to the parking lot, they say it wont start. So, I go to try and no luck. My question for you guys is there anything I am over looking? The car has gas and the battery is good. The car tries to turn but it just wont start. What do you guys think? I am going to try to swap out the EMS for the stock ECU to see if this will help. THanks for any advice in advance!

~fred

 

if not adjusted correctly,the cold cranking on the aem plain sucks.try it again and just remember that it takes more cranking cycles to fire up.hope this helps,good luck

 

do you hear the starter click....... if not it could be the battery but im not familuar with the ame ems

 

my friend has the same setup as you and he has to push on the gas while the engine is cranking to get it to start (same setup being hks 280's and aem) maybe you could try that

 

"tries to turn" "good battery"?? pick one and get back to us please.

 

clutch in?

 

Most likely due to an improper tune if that is the case. He should address the cold start enrichments and the car should crank right up. Remember, tuning the timing and fuel maps is easy, but adjusting the cold start enrichments, MAT compensation(timing & fuel) and all the other adjustments takes a good bit of time. Also, if the car was tuned in the summer you can only guess how it will react when it becomes cold in the morning.

 

well i just tried swapping in the stock ECU/MAF sensor but still no start. the battery is good. i can hear the starter click. its like its not getting any spark at all. the spark plugs arent that old. its getting towed to my dad's friend's shop. he said he will check the fuel pump/pressure and the plugs to see if they are good and then go from there.

 

hope you get it running again

 

Clicking starter is a bad thing your engine should spin like mad. Did you try a battery charge?

 

I dont know which side you had your car shipped to but I would be willing to diagnose your problem at no charge (that does not mean I will also fix it at no cost) if you are on the east coast and can get the car to my shop

There are many possible causes to your problem - all it takes is someone with some basic trouble shooting and tuning basics to go through the simple process to track down the problem

Sadly, I have seen a lot of cars which have been shipped that endured significant abuse on the way - we even had one which had the clutch worn out by some buffon who was trying to load it from one truck to the other somewhere in the middle of the US

Best of luck

 

is it just clicking or is it also trying to start? are the dash lights dimming significantly? when you say the battery is good, did you swap it out and try it in a different car? just laying out all the possibilites with the easiest fix first...

 

Al, thanks for the offer, bro. Unfortunately, the car is on the West Coast now. If this shop can't figure it out, I will probably have it towed to RRE since that is probably the best shop in my area. I appreciate the generosity, though.

The car is trying to start. the guage lights dim while cranking. the battery isnt even a year old. im thinking its something to do with the electrical system or possibly the fuel pump. ill let you guys know what happens i hate when crap like this happens, SOOOO frustrating. thanks for all the help guys

~fred

 

if the lights are dimming that means that the crancking amps are low you need 840 cold cranking amps to start the car, you need a new battery. It doesnt matter that the battery is only 1 year old.

 

Oh man. This is bringing back nightmares for me.
Waaay back in the day, I had my modified Pontiac Fiero GT shipped from Tennessee to Connecticut when I moved. They missed the date, and gave me the run around on why the car wasn't delivered. Finally it arrived and wouldn't start. I had the car towed to the dealer, and found out they put 5 gallons of diesel fuel in it after driving it around (joy riding). The dealer had to replace all fuel related items (lines, injectors, etc). Ended up costing the shipper about a grand. It was with DAS http://www.dasautoshippers.com/ if that matters.