Engine not starting

Did you do a compression test, does it have spark, does it start on starting fluid

My uncle's mechanic is a professional but not with foreign cars. He has been kind enough to look at mine but rarely has more than an hour of time at a time. I pray youre still feeling as kind and are willing to share any other brilliant advice. He followed your aforementioned directions to a tee, still nothing. The dash is off and they are about to give up on it/me. If you can think of anything else we can do, any other suggestions at all, I beg you please please share. Yes compression test, I dont know the results but suspect it was correct. No spark. No start on starting fluid. I am told someone checked it with a special device ? That says the problem lies within the keyless entry/security system. I think it has been disconnected. Please keep in mind all this info im sharing with you is third hand and I am not at all familiar with mechanic lingo. His next move is a new ignition.I see there is info about donating on this site, I will educate myself further and plan to give accordingly plus some as soon as I can. Hope your holiday was bright. Have a blessed day kind sir, youve helped immensely. Xo
chrissy

If I didnt mention before, you're an angel.
1. No "check engine" light when ignition is on. Im pretty sure the dash doesnt show any indicator lights whatsoever.
3. Yes sparks ARE missing.
5. Yes there is voltage at the coil when cranking. There is voltage on all 3 wires. Even on the ground.
6. He thinks the keyless entry is after market. The keyless entry has been totally removed.
**I fear I may have confused his answers to #'s 4 5 & 7. But if I recall correctly. Yes 12 volts at ignition coil when ignition is on.
And yes the fuel pump is working. Im certain he said that checking 1 or the other of these requires hotwiring.
7. He feels strongly that the fuel pump will work properly when the unknown problem is addressed. I cant remember what he said about the pressue.
Thank you again and again for your help sir. You are a ray of sunshine after weeks of gloomy gray skies. I look forward to a reply and appreciate any info you care to share. Pardon my late nights rants as I keep odd hours with my work.
Happy New Year. God Bless
Chrissy

Hello kind Sir,

I have some more information to share. Seems dash indicator lights are showing when ignition is on. All except the "check engine" one. He tried 2 different scans tools (cheap & then fancy) but neither pick up, read or even come on. Nada nothing. Also, there is no "flicker" when he tests the connector harness while its unplugged. All 3 have voltage when its plugged in.
As im learning from you and recalling the extreme caution the manual warned about while working on the computer of the car, im flipping out a lil bit because I cant swear wether or not the ignition was turned to the on or off postion when the ECM was being changed. Both it and the ignition module were being changed at the same time by two people, it was 8 degrees cold and I was jumping in and out of my car turning it over, looking for lights, relaying info etc. Good grief. 5 weeks and several hundred $$'s later. Do you think the aforementioned points directly to the $220 ECM? If so is there an alternate way to double check it? And if not, have you anymore advice? A million thanks Sir. Waiting nervously for your generous reply.
Chrissy

Did you check the ignitor it is located right behind the intake on the firewall, its what controls the firing for the coil. I ran into a couple of these in the past.

If the ignitor is directly in the middle straight ahead on the frame of the car, thats what I meant when I said ignition module. Thank you for your interest & help.

The dash bulbs havent been checked still my friend seems to think the problem is with the coil pack and or its wiring. When u plug in the coil harness all 3 wires turn 12volt power. With it unplugged only 1 wire, the middle 1, is showing 12v power. No pulse test can be ran/detected because they all show 12volts. Im told that all grounds are good. A different ecm was purchased and plugged in today as well (that makes 3 ecms)but to no avail. Im thankful for your continued interest and kind help. Friday is payday and a donation will be made to show my thanks. Xo

Im hoping to have my uncle reply to your last query. Thank you again and again.

Im still carless and the fellow helping me is busy so I havent any pertinent info to share. I pray i'll get some updated proper answers tomorrow so I may send them to you. Im making a donation, finally. Although im not sure how appropriate is in regard to all your help, its the best I can do at present. The Lord keeps a special eye on me so I doubt it will be my only donation. Looking forward to more brilliant help soon. Thanks again.
Chrissy

No fire, all components are new.

Hello, and thank you all in advance. To start let me say I'm not a newbie to cars, been working on them for sometime now but I can't seem to get my 96 Subaru Legacy 2.2 station wagon started. For starters I replaced the serpentine belt because it was worn and was making a high pitch noise. Then I brought it to the shop to replace my Catalytic converters replaced (would of done it myself but bolts were stuck on there good). When I received my scooby back I noticed it was bogging pretty bad. Almost got hit pulling out of the parking lot because she wouldn't go. Kept driving home and it seemed to slowly work itself out to the point I was almost thinking that I was delusional about the power loss. So anyways skip about a week, and my fiancee takes the scooby to work which is about an hour away (she had been doing it the whole week as well). When she got off work and went to go start the car it made a really bad noise (I've no clue what the noise sounded like because I wasn't there) and the car started to vibrate. Putting the car into reverse my fiancee was hoping it would work out until she got home. Well as soon as she put it in reverse the whole car shuddered bad and almost died. So she put it back into park and turned the car off. I show up about an hour later and started tinkering with the serpentine belt thinking maybe I tighten it to much. After about 5 trial and errors of it making weird noises each time different then the last one. I'm guessing it had to do with the belt but after the 5th try the car wouldn't start anymore. So I figured we flooded it and that it should be fine in the morning. So we leave and return the next day to find that it still wouldn't start. So I did some more trouble shooting, started with the fuel, had my fiancee try and start the car, while I listened for the fuel pump to engage, it did. I then had her try again while I smelled the scoobies tail pipe. (I know weird saying that I smelled the scoobies tail pipe haha) anyways I noticed an unburnt fuel smell. So thinking it wasn't sparking I went to the front and checked the battery. It's fully charged, cleaned the terminal anyways with no change. So I decided to check to see if it was even sparking, stuck a screw driver into an unplugged spark plug wire and had it sit next to the engine block. No spark, so I thought I had found my culprit. Changed the coil pack thinking that was it (even though we had just changed it less then 6 months ago thought maybe it was defective) but the only change it made was the type of noise it was making when we turned it over. It was first making it's normal noise when you try and start a scooby, but after the coil pack was changed it started making a different sound that I couldn't describe. Did the spark test again with still no spark. So now I'm totally lost, tried looking online to see if anyone else had similar problems. To no avail, found something about the crank shaft and cam shaft position sensors going bad could affect the ability to start the car. So I've changed the crank shaft position sensor and will be putting the cam shaft position sensor later when I go pick up my Fiancee. So to wrap this up, I need someone who might have a clue as to what I'm dealing with. Because I can't afford to keep buying parts and hoping it will work. Nor can I get it towed because it's out in the middle of this bad mountain I doubt a tow truck could even make it. Any and all help would be appreciated greatly. Thanks again!

How do you check the fuel pressure in a 96 subaru legacy? I don't know the mileage, it stop working at 168k but it was a rental car so god knows how many miles is on it. Haha, but it's been a great car for over 2 years without any real problems, routine stuff nothing serious so I'd imagine we would have gotten some sort of warning before it would just crap out. But I bought a compression tester, spark tester, and a multimeter. Should I get any other thing to test my car with? It's an hour up the road and an hour and a half from the nearest auto part store so I'd like to know before I go venturing out again. Thanks for the quick reply!