I have an 02 sebring 2.4L that we just replaced the timing belt on and now it won't start. I have checked the timing marks and they are perfectly lined up, on the camshafts and the crankshaft. We're getting fire the the sparkplugs and the injectors. We have 60-62 lbs. of fuel pressure at the fuel rail. I've replaced the camshaft position sensor, the crankshaft position sensor and the coil pack and it still won't start. Can anyone help me? I am going crazy trying to figure this one out.

 

Any codes? Are you sure the spark plug wires aren't mixed up? If you've got fuel and spark, it should start.
One more thing: You can have all the timing marks lined up perfectly but if the crankshaft is not on the compression stroke, it's not right. The crankshaft TDC must be on the compression stroke.

 

No codes in the scanner. The sparkplug wires aren't crossed. When you spin the car over it sounds like it has a plug wire crossed up. As for the compression, we have 150 lbs. on all four cylanders. Would I still have compression if the crank was not TDC on the compression stroke.

 

You will still have compression, but the spark will fire just as the air/fuel mixture has been pumped out of the cylinder.
The normal 4-cycle pattern is:
1 Intake
2 Compression
spark
3 Power
4 Exhaust

If the cams are set at the top of the exhaust stroke rather than the compression stroke, the cycle becomes

1 Intake
2 Compression
3 Expansion
4 Exhaust
Spark

You might get a backfire in the exhaust system occasionally, but it obviously won't run like that.

 

Here's the problem now. We found that a pin was sheared off of the intake cam, so we put another cam in it. The timing marks are inline where they're supposed to be. We have replaced the target pickup at the end of the cam, because the other one was cracked. When trying to crank the car, it sounds like the plug wires are crossed. They aren't, but just for kicks we crossed 1 and 2 then 3 and 4 and the car runs, but only on 2 cylinders. We are trying a new coil pack to see if that helps.

 

Did you ever verify that the crank was at TDC on the compression stroke when the cam timing marks were aligned? The fact that it "runs" with the spark plug wires swapped makes me more and more suspicious of that problem. No way should it run at all with spark plug wires swapped. Think about it in light of my previous post.

 

Whewwwwww, this one took a LONG time to figure out. The cam we bought had the wrong Target pickup (magnet) on the end. The target pickup will only go in one way. Even though the lobes and the sprocket end of the cam were the same, the target pickup on the other end was about 1/3 to 1/4 turn out, which explains the crossing of the plug wires theory. It turns out Chrysler has 8 different cams with 4 different applications, The Sebring, PT Cruiser, Stratus and the Cirrus. (Stupid if you ask me). Thanks for all of your help.

 

The first time it happen to me,i did check for spark and all plugs will fire and the plugs were replaced.I also replaced the crankshaft position sensor since it was the cheapest sensor.