grifferjr

i know this should probably be in the repairing section but more people surf here so i thought i would give it a shot. so here it goes.

i got in the car today and she wont start.

the details: 2003 touring automatic, 45k miles, have had all the regular maintenence outside of the "30k" mile one that costs 800 bucks cause i heard where those really arent necessary on todays engines outside of just changing air and other filters.

the story: get in today and try and start the car and everything sounds normal except for when it should fire it just wont take hold.dont know how else i can describe it. it even turns over as normal and seems as if i were to pump the gas in the right time it would go but it just wont grab hold. almost as if it werent getting gas or something. to top that off it smells like pure gasoline in my garage, dont know if its the car or maybe my lawnmower next to it.

afterthoughts: car is bone stock, oil change 2 weeks ago on schedule, always use top notch gas (last fill up friday night has 3/4 tank in her now) car has never shown signs of this before, no hard idling, no difficulty starting, no anything!!!

can anyone make sense of this. i do have the extended gold warranty and have it scheduled for a tow to the dealer on tuesday morning but it sucks that its a holiday weekend and i cant get this addressed any sooner.

thanks.

Jaki

iTrader: (21)

might be the key, it might need to be reprogrammed.

grifferjr

thanks for the thought but i tried all the other keys that came with the car like the spare and valet and nothing. unless they would be bad also.

the car did the same thing. turned over and simply sounded like a car that needed to be "given the gas" in order to fire up. like the hooptie cadillac i used to drive in high school!!!

i am stumped!!

still

kalima275Z

iTrader: (4)

I don't know what to tell you. But Griffey rocks! Even though he got hurt recently and is day-to-day DL. Good luck with your car. GRIFFEY ROCKS!!!

kcobean

iTrader: (2)

Have you checked all the fuses to make sure you didn't pop an ignition fuse? Also check your fuel pump fuse? That one (at least on the MT) is up behind the battery.

If you've been turning it over repeatedly with no spark, it's not surprising that you're smelling fuel (assuming that the pump is running) but also is there any fuel pooling underneath the car?

Not sure what else to point at. Let us know how it turns out.

grifferjr

thanks for the replies. havent checked the fuses. will do so tommorrow when its light out. also i searched here and did find some forums on the key thing and unfortunately its not my solution. guess theres a way you can self re-program the key by manually locking and unlocking the doors and my keys all do that fine as well as the window rolling, and when i go to start, nothing.

yeah i have always loved griffey, sweet swing! glad he is still a red, even though he does deserve a team that will put him into the post season and unfortunately carl lindener (sp) and company wont spend the cash to get arms that can pitch the reds into the playoffs. but i digress!!

my poor Z!!!!!

hypeiv

iTrader: (2)

30k service is 800? i was going to skip 15k and only get 30k and 60k but at $800 jeez it may be worthwile to sell my car at 30k

Jaki

iTrader: (21)

Just a thought, since you have an AT, make sure it sits directly on parking and not between or half way in or so... it happened to me few years ago on my old car once, It took me a long time to figure out what was wrong with it lol

LIdrew

Is it possible you flooded the engine? Smells like gas. Turns but won't start? I am no expert, however this happened when I had my Sentra. I started the car and drove a very short distance....like 10 feet to move it in my driveway. When I tried to start it again, it was flooded becuase I only drove a short distance, the engine couldn't burn off the initial injection of fuel and I shut the car right off.

grifferjr

yeah its very possible i flooded it if you can still do that to todays engines, i thought that was a thing of the past with carbuerators and such. the last thing i did with the car was clean her up in the driveway, wash and detail and the such and then the girlfriend came over and since she was driving for the night all i did was start her up saturday morning and pull the car about 15 feet into the garage and then shut her down. didnt try to start back up till the sunday morning, and thats when all this happened.

let it sit all day yesterday and tried to start last night, no luck. guess i will try again here in a minute. pretty positive its all the way in park. any other way to make sure its not still flooded if thats even the case?

even then though it sat for damn near a day between when i pulled it into the garage and when i tried to start it, wouldnt the gas have evaporated in that long a time?

oh well the saga continues, anymore ideas?????

rolling

iTrader: (2)

have you tried venting the gas tank?
(loosening the gas cap for vaporlock?)

kcobean

iTrader: (2)

The other thing you could do is pull the fuel pump fuse and give the car a few 5 or 10 second cranks to try and clear the cylinders out without adding more fuel. I'm not sure if that would help, but it's worth a shot. The fuel pump fuse is up behind the battery.

grifferjr

do i try and start the car with the gas cap loose or just let gas cap open for a few minutes then cap it and then start? if i start the car with the cap off i know it will give me a service engine soon light. i will also look into the fuses cause its light out now.

again thanks for all the ideas and please keep them coming!!!!!

kcobean

iTrader: (2)

You wouldn't have to leave the cap off, just loosen and re-tighten it.

Don't sweat getting the SES light. It's easy to reset that with nothing but your right foot and a watch with a second hand.

grifferjr

well i am waiving the proverbial white flag. i called AAA and they are coming out to tow it to the stealership in about an hour or so. bad thing is is that the dealer its going to i hate. but its within the radius of the "free" towing that AAA will do. i would have to pay a boatload to get it towed where i would really like it to go.

so now its in the hands of others, and we shall see. hope its something halfway minor, or at least something that falls underneath the warranty. knowing my luck it wont be either.

sigh!!!!!!

ecorona6

iTrader: (34)

Keep us posted! I am having the same problem with a little twist! I was involved in a serious accident about 6months ago and now that the body is done and my car doesnt start! It is turning, but seems like it needs gas!

I tried the fuse thing and didnt work... I just had my keys programmed so I know its not that! I took it to the dealership and did a diagnostic check, but no luck. Last thing they wanted to do is a full wire harness (electrical) check that would cost me $980 and if I needed a new harness it would cost me $5000+.

B.S. pulled the car out and is sitting at the body shop. A machenic will be looking at it on Tuesday.......If I find anything I will post it on this thread!

Good luck!

rolling

iTrader: (2)

nooooo ya dont leave it off..
i meant loosen it to let air pressure equalize (takes about 1 sec)
just what KCOBEAN says...

the7ferret

i have flodded my engine when I didnt start it completely . Just Floor it and crank it, after a few seconds mine always started up.

grifferjr

well it was towed and she sits at the dealer right now. got lucky and the service manager was there when i followed the tow truck with my other car. after it came of the flatbed, the service manager got in it and tried to fire and it did everything i have already talked about. he said he would bet anything that it was flooded. he said it all goes back to when i started it to pull it into the garage only drove ten feet then shut her down. on top of that it has been going from warm and humid to cool and damp at night here which all means that the gas from the initial injection never burnt off and then with the next start more gas was dumped in. if i would have stayed on the ignition to start it probably would have fired like it was just mentioned but by the time he was doingthe same thing at the delaership, it just wouldnt fire and the car stunk like a gas can. flooded like crazy. i did not know you could just stay on the ignition like that. figured it would cause harm to the starter or something.

so chances are tommorrow they will open her up, clean the plugs off and maybe even change the oil, depending on how bad it is. the guy said he has seen this a few times.

so lesson is when you start up, should let her run a bit or at least gas it a few times to burn the intial fuel off.

ecorona6

iTrader: (34)

Thanks for the update....Hopefully thats all it needs and your car starts right up when they make some adjustments....

Please post the outcome when you get it as I will be following this thread to try and solve my problem!

Thanks!