check the fuel pump... like you said it may have crapped out on ya

 

Ill try and check that as well, though Since I am FI, I also have a fuel pressure gauge. reads 40 before starting, and on the rare occasion that it does start, maintains >50. I thought it could be that but watched it as I revd the car and it seemed to maintain. But I would think, with 40psi at startup it should at least fire up every time, but could die out later if fuel pump couldnt keep up.

 

fixed it, for now at least... changed crank/cam sensors, and changed ECM relay in IPDM, those didnt quite fix it. I saw a little corrosion on my ground wire to battery, cleaned it off with brakleen, retightened all grounds and car started right up... im think its time to redo my grounds, as that seems to be the problem.

 

I am surprised you don't have a code list considering the electrical problems you describe.

 

never once threw a code for anything. Basically what it came down to, was there was not a good ground connection close enough to the spark plugs/coils so it was not igniting properly. The wire was snug too, but just not super tight, and maybe connections were a little dirty. I went through every possible option, and at the end saw the wire was a little dirty and was like "what the hell, ill try this", cleaned it with some brakleen, made it really tight, and car started right up. Oh well, preventative maintenance I guess. Id rather change out those sensors rather than get stranded somewhere and pay more for the towing than those sensors cost when they do go bad...

Grounds to everything else were fine, except engine ground near the coils/heads, so everything else checked out fine except there was no spark.

I also ordered a bunch of wire and connectors to make a full grounding kit and redo all grounds to prevent this problem again.

 

^^ Electrical problems are the worst, especially when the problems are caused by failing grounds. Faulty grounds can be very difficult to track-down. I had a 1990 Mitsubishi Montero that I really liked for off-road, but I finally gave up on it recently because I had so many failed grounds (on a 20+ year old car) and worried about being stranded in the bush miles from any road.

Mercifully I have not had this problem (and what you describe) on my 2003 350z. I sincerely hope replacing the grounds fixes your problem. Let us know how it comes out.

 

Yea i added a couple ground wires i borrowed from a friend till my wires come in. car starts up first crank and runs better than ever. To make it even more difficult, I do have a small battery in the trunk for the audio system, so everything in the car was running and connected fine.. just that ONE engine ground was bad.. Glad I found the problem, and I will go overkill on the grounding kit when I get the parts in. Having the clean engine bay look is not worth the trouble of having this possibly happen.