1983 Chrysler Imperial: starting problems

[RandalPark@xxxxxxx]

This was a frequent problem with early '80s, first generation computerized 
cars. In most, the ignition and the fuel system are both computer controlled. 
There are a guzillion reasons why these cars either stop running or won't 
start. In many cases, the trouble is intermittent and difficult to find. Many 
Auto Electric shops in the good old USA became very wealthy during the time 
that these cars were on the road. The sad part is, most of them never really 
ever figured out what was wrong with the cars. Eventually their owners became 
annoyed and sold them.

I hate to be so general here, but I know from experience that this was 
universally true among the big three and most likely others too. My newest 
Chrysler Product has always been my '68 Imperial. I have '80s offerings from 
each of the other major manufacturers, and have had occasional problems with 
both, although the G.M built cars have been much more reliable than the ones 
from Ford. I still run both of them on a daily basis.

When those Imperials were new, many people had exactly that kind of trouble 
with them. The cars will run perfectly, and for no apparent reason, quit on the 
road or refuse to start. Over the years I have found that the folks that were 
the most successful keeping those cars on the road were the ones who "loved 
them no matter what". 

I have also found that reading the wiring diagrams and understanding where 
relays and sensors (both vacuum and electronic) are, and understanding what 
they do helps a lot. Relays with dirty contacts can cause an intermittent 
problem for years before they actually quit working all together. This is also 
true of sensors.

In summary, I would say that there probably is not one thing that anyone here 
can tell you that will solve your problem. If you love the car, you will become 
very accustomed to knowing under what condition your car does certain things. 
Eventually you will be able to make sense out of that information, along with 
the things that you read and study to make a good stab at finding the faulty 
part or parts. The other option would be to pay someone else to do that, but I 
offer this: back during the time that those cars were on the road there were 
few, if any mechanics that could trouble shoot them. Most people just got taken 
to the cleaners, and still couldn't depend on their cars to run when they were 
suppose to.

If you don't want to go through this process, I would suggest selling the car, 
or becoming a member of AAA Plus. If you can, buy extra towing.

Paul

In a message dated 6/4/2004 1:40:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
joelrsmith@xxxxxxxxxx writes:

> Hi Guys,
> 
> I have a 1983 Chrysler Imperial that I purchased about a month ago. It's in 
>pretty decent condition, but does have some rust in the rear left & right 
>quarter panel & the bottom of the deck lid. It has 130,000 Miles on it (but 
>there is an asterix beside where it says that, don't know what that means) and 
>gets from 15 - 20 US MPG on a tank.
> 
> Right from the beginning, whenever I would start it, it would crank over a 
>bit more than what I would expect a "normal" car to do, although I did hear 
>from a certain mechanic that due to it's older computer, that could be normal. 
>It always drives & idles nice though. Anyways, here's what happened: I drove 
>my car to work friday morning (7:30 am), and it did it's usual "longer than 
>normal" start, all was good. It sat all day at work in about say 20 C (68 F) 
>temperature. I finished work around 5:00 pm and went to start my car. The 
>first try I held the key in the "start" position for about 6 - 8 seconds, it 
>just cranked, didn't fire once. This was kind of surprising, as it had never 
>done this before. So I tried it again, nothing. After that, i tried pumping 
>the gas pedal (I usually NEVER touch the gas pedal at all before or during 
>starting) while I was cranking it, it actually fired one or two times but 
>didn't start. Next, I pulled off the air cleaner cover, & I could smell gas( 
>but it didn't appear flooded), so I left the cover off for a minute or two, 
>then put it back on and tried again. Nothing. 
> 
> So after that I went back inside to where I work & called AMA to send over a 
>tow truck. Next ( about 30 mins had passed since I had last tried starting the 
>car) I went outside again to see if I could start the car. I put the key in 
>and cranked it...it didn't fire for a sec or two, but then caught a few times 
>& started. For the first few seconds it ran rough, like it had too much / too 
>little fuel, but after that it smoothed out and idled like it has always had 
>before (it idles nice btw). So now i'm a little scared about something like 
>this happening again (i've been driving it for about 4 days since then and 
>it's always started). Now would any of you guys have any idea what the problem 
>could be and what I can do to fix it? I'm also interested in why it seems to 
>need a few excessive cranks to start. 
> 
> Oh, and you can check out pictures of my car here: 
> http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Joel Smith
> Edmonton, Alberta.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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