1987 Park Avenue ignition failure

[heidigirl]

obdII came into play at some time, but i don't know what year. the difference between obdI and obdII might give you different codes for the same problem, but you shouldn't harm anything in the car using the paper clip. BTW, if the 'check engine' light is not on, there will not be any codes.

[coiciu]

I just tried to get the codes out of my car, but I couldn’t do it as the connector for OBD II is different than OBD I one. Here is a link where I found some info on the OBD II terminal, but it wasn’t enough for me:
http://www.obdii.com/connector.html

And you are certainly right about the codes not being pulled out if the “Check Engine” light is not on. Now I don’t know which way to go. I am not a mechanical wizard myself, but I have a friend who could help me. I don’t want to go to a service because the car is old and they will probably find lots of things that should be changed and before I now it I will end up changing half the car.

Is there any way I can check the fuel pump or other things you think might cause the problem? Thank you in advance!

[heidigirl]

another thought would be a weak coil pack. you can remove it and have napa or canadian tire test it for you. please don't lose sight of the fact that my comments are first impressions based on the symptoms you described, but the true problem could be any number of glitches. you may have to do a diagnostic check to find the problem part, but that doesn't mean you're obligated to the technician to change it. the culprit is more than likely a sensor, etc. and you should be able to change it out relatively easily.
ok, there's my 2 centavos. lets have some comments from other members of the forum.