I am rather a newbie when it comes to car repair, so hope someone here can point me in the right direction.
no problem, we can at least get you in the right direction.
-Battery charged, registers at over 13v
Something wrong with you voltmeter, you can't have over 12 volts unless the motor is running.
-Alternator cranks (I can hear it 'turning')
You mean the starter? How fast does it crank, as fast as usual?
-There is no response from the engine (I figure spark plugs are done for, see above, pure speculation)
Pull out one of your spark plugs and hold it against the block to see if you have a spark when you are cranking over (there is a tool for this but I'll assume you don't have it)
-The car had the fire recall done on it in July! So there is all new electrical in the car, they have not looked at the sparkplugs.
Make sure you have more than one good ground stap as well, often many electrical problems are traced back to poor grounding. It's a common problem with older cars.
-The battery is near new.
This doesn't mean that you don't have a problem with it. It just means that you should be able to get another one for free.
-Never had this type of problem before.
So remember what happened and how you fix it, the more this happens the better you will get.
Other things to check for;
when you turn the ignition to the on position (not start) do you hear the fuel pump come on?
Did you double check if you have enough gas? (don't laugh I've fixed someones car more than once this way)
If worse comes to worse you may have to open up the throttle body to get at the fuel injector to see if it's acctually injecting fuel (save this to last because it will take more time, first just check to make sure there is fuel pressure to the throttle body)
After trying to start your car for a while you may flood the engine making it imposible to stark anyway. To make sure you don't have this problem, you can use a pair of vice grips to pinch off the fuel line near the throttle body and crak over the motor a few times to pump the fuel out of the cylinders. (this works but it also damages your fule line, make sure your fuel lines are in good enough shape to do this before you try it)
If you find a problem with fuel or spark, track the problem back until you find the problem area. For eg. lets say that you have no spark at the spark plug, track back to distributor, spark going into distributor but not out (pull out the center wire for the distributor cap and hold it near the block, can you see a spark when the motor is cranking), let say that there is no spark, open up the distributor cap and see if the rotor turns when the motor is cranking (if it doesn't turn then you likely have to replace your timing chain), lets say for this eg. the rotor is turning. This means you have a problem with your timing or with a connection on your distributor cap or rotor.
In all honesty the troubleshooting section at the front of your manual is your best friend. Only onece did I have a problem that this section didn't help me to fix. Start with a basic spark fuel test and then work your way though the troubleshooting section.
Aaron
.
Author