Mydnyghte

Little history real quick. I was leaving work one day, and when I cranked my car up, it started running really rough like it had a huge cam in it. It was smoking pretty badly also, so I turned the car off. I sat for a minute or two, and cranked it again and it was fine.

Fast forward to last week, I took my car back to the bodyshop to get a thing or two done, and the same thing happened there when they went to pull it in the shop at the end of the day. The day after, instead of cranking the car and pulling it out of the shop, they just rolled it out. That afternoon when they went to pull it back in, the car would not start.

I went out there to take a look at it, and its like the car is out of gas. When I first put the key in the ignition, the fuel gauge shows 1/4 of a tank of gas. Once I attempted to start it, the car acted like it wanted to crank, but never would. The fuses were checked, the fuel cutoff was checked, gas was added, plug wires were checked, and still nothing.

I even plugged up my programmer and it did not find any codes. I would like to avoid a $100 towing charge, so if any of you fellas can offer any ideas or suggest something else to inspect, please do so.

And for the record, I've been using this bodyshop since I bought my car back in 2005. The owner and I went to highschool together and is a good friend of mine, and he has my full trust when it comes to working on my car. Heck, he's practically rebuilt the whole thing

theedge67

So now the engine won't even crank? That doesn't sound good.

tom281

If it won't crank then you have a bad battery, a bad starter, or a blown fuse although I don't think there's any kind of fusing that will disallow cranking.

turbo05gt

Bad gas?

hammeron

i would verify that your fuel
pump is working normally

karman

I'll put my bet on the battery.

Mydnyghte

The fuel pump had crossed my mind, especially since they have the TSB on them regarding the stuttering after a long cruise, maybe its in the same ballpark as that Is there a way to test it?

The battery I had not considered, only because I can turn the key and the starter will turn the engine just like it always has, it just never fires up and runs. It seems theres plenty of electrical power, its like the gas never gets ignited. Though if this is still a possible symptom of a bad battery, please tell me.

Another thing that had crossed my mind was a clogged fuel filter. Other than that I am lost!

crewcutkid

Injectors is my guess.

shaun_beauchamp

How many miles? Fuel filter could be clogged. The symptoms are fairly consistent. When you turn the car on the fuel is delivered. If you turned the car off, fuel pressure would cease and the debris in the filter may have moved. When you start again, it works. Kind of a long shot, but a cheap part that will ease your mind.

Note: Should not be an issue under 16K miles.

If you have less then 16K I would say fuel pump. I had mine replaced under the TSB. Mine only stuttered after long highway trips and then when I take the off ramp it would stutter at the beginning of my next take-off.

Mydnyghte

They actually replaced the injectors around the beginning of last year. My car was with them for about 4 months and during that time from when they would start the car, move it a few feet then cut it off, the injectors went south.

The car as it sits now has about 21k miles on it. In the morning I will try to investigate the filter ::crosses fingers::

Starfire

I just had something similar happen on my car (Grand Prix). It was the fuel pump, but if I hit the tank with a hammer it ran then, must of be getting old so I replaced it anyhow although it had 97,000 miles on it so it's expected somewhat.

turbo05gt

haha use to do that with my fox!!

hammeron

ok, let us know what you find with
the fuel filter

Mydnyghte

I won't have the chance to run to the shop until tomorrow, but I did call them this morning. They had a guy come take a look, and he seemed to think it is the fuel pump. His reasoning is that he was not able to hear the fuel pump priming whenever they cut the car on. So they are going to get a local mechanic to come by and test the fuel pressure to see if there is any when they try to start the car. If it ends up being the pump, what do you guys think my chances are of getting a new pump under warranty are without having my car there?

retfr8flyr

Have you checked the fuel pump inertia switch? The switch could have been triggered at some point.



Earl

GottaHaveIt

Hows about if you got any water on top of the engine, happened to me whaen I had my 05GT and it sounds like what you described they had to replace one of the coils above one of the spark plugs to get it going. $ 45.00 item

karman

Good point, sometimes they get triggered by various impacts.
You should always at least check it when you have no start problems.

theedge67

Check the inertia switch first. Second thing I would try is this: Try pushing the gas pedal all the way to the floor and holding it down, then crank the engine for about 3-5 seconds, then stop. Turn key to off, then back on again and try to start the car with no gas pedal.

The engine will crank but not start with the pedal on the floor, this is normal. I think it should help clear out any excess fuel from the cylinders, preventing a flooding condition.

Mydnyghte

Well it is not the fuel pump. It can be heard priming, it is very quiet, but it is there. And you can smell gas as the car is being cranked, so I don't believe it is the filter either. The car is getting gas.

I did talk to a guy at Piedmont Modular Performance, and he had told me they had a similar issue with a car and it was the, if I recall correctly, cam phase position sensor.

If anything else, I could get it towed to the local dealership down there, but I am afraid to think what they would tell me since I have lt headers and an intake, and a tune

max2000jp

Take the intake and tune out of the car first. When you get the car back running, just reinstall the intake/tune. It takes like 10 minutes to swap an intake on these cars once you've done them.