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Just went thru a cranks no start on my 99 Suburban (5.7). The vehicle only gets driven about 1x per week this time of year as it is primarily used for towing. Last week I connected the trailer in the evening to get ready to use it the next day. All was good. The next AM – no start.
It would crank & almost start & after a few seconds would become hard to crank, making me think I was hydolocking due to flooding or my timing had gone way off. I knew it was getting fuel as the plugs got fuel soaked & I knew I had spark, but even with quick start I couldn’t get it to kick. After reading up, I became paranoid it was either low fuel pressure or a bad crank or cam sensor, but don’t have a fuel pressure gauge & may basic scan tool showed no codes to indicate a sensor was bad. Changed the plugs in case the flooded plugs had gotten fuel soaked but no joy.
After “overintellectualizing” for a couple of days, & going through the below and more, I went back to basics. No start in winter when its damp outside & vehicle hasn’t run for a while -> look at the distributor. even though I had changed the cap and wires less than 2 years ago, so thought that they would be OK, I found the cap & rotor had corrosion on the contacts. Replaced it and the rotor & fired up. 10 minutes to check & replace.
That said, A couple of quick checks you can do w/o better tools.
1. when you cycle the key, you can hear the fuel pump come on for a few seconds to prime (might need a 2nd person to listen at the filler)
2. Pull plugs. If fuel soaked they are getting fuel.
3. If the pump runs, on the fuel rail beside the throttle body, you can open up the schraeder valve & just press it to see if fuel spurts out. That will show you have some pressure at least (might not be enough to start the engine). If you do the same test, but wait 15-20 minutes after the pump runs before pressing the valve, you will be able to tell if the system is holding pressure. Not very scientific, but will get you some idea if fuel is the issue.
3. Check for spark with a screwdriver inserted in a plug wire. If you have spark, its unlikely it is a bad sensor.
4. Open up the throttle body & spray some quick start in (or carb cleaner) & see if it fires up. NB you need to put the air intake back on.
5. Check to be sure the engine temp sensor is operating OK (a bad one can cause the PCM to change timing causing no start)good luck
ps – my fuel gauge has also been problematic for some time now (original pump module still in place). Dropped the tank last fall & found the issue was the way the float arm swipes the varistor used to determine fuel level. It was shot, but there is no way to replace it alone, the pump & sender are only sold as a unit. However, the fuel pump has no relationship to the sender, except that they are mounted together, so because it acts up, doesn’t mean the pump is bad (as others have said though, running the tank at / near empty will really reduce the pumps life expectancy). Also was interested to find that with 145,000 on the clock and gas bought all over the continent in some pretty obscure places, the inside of the tank was spotless – with no sign of water or any gunk at all, so even though I change fuel filters regularly, indicates that was not something that I had ever needed to do.
I have a love / hate relationship.
1st car was a ’68 MGB bought in fall 73, so 4 1/2 years old – taught me a lot about working on cars – both body work and mechanical (,figure I had a 3:1 driving/fixing hours ratio), but a lot of fun driving around with the top down as long as you kept under @ 50 mph (too much noise & buffeting over that). Paid $500 for it, put over $1,000 in parts in it & sold it after 18 months to buy a reliable driver (a 75 Pinto I put 110,000 trouble free miles on that my dad, fed up with my always needing to borrow his car, lent me the money to buy…..). Still miss it & often think of buying another to revisit days gone by…….
In 1999 I bought a Jag 98 XJ8 VDP as an early lease return car. Still have it (my son is currently using it as his University drive) & still think it is one of the nicest looking cars on the road. Like the MG, its been a love/hate relationship. Based on the Jag forums I’m part of, I’m batting 1.000 on the things most likely to go wrong, but as I do my own work the cost hasn’t been horrific & it’s a great car to drive. Once over the gremlins, many due to bleeding edge engineering shared with BMW (lots of interchangeable parts), its been a reliable drive.
On a footnote though. My favourite car of all was a 1985 Saab 900T16
16 years old with a summer job’s money burning in my pocket. Bought a 1968 MGB in 1973 ( found later while buying lots of parts it was technically a 1967, but sold as a 68 as that was the way it was done in those days….)
After looking at it when I brought it home, my dad said he would “help me with it if I gave him carte blanche to buy the parts needed to make it roadworthy” (or something like that).
To this day I remember it was:
VIN: 18GB RUH 90288
Engine: GHN3L134356J
Had to buy a lot of parts and you needed both to make sure you got the right ones…….I have no idea what any of the #’s were of any cars I’ve owned since….For me it was:
* the best bonding experience possible with my dad (an engineer and a lover of cars, who was pained by the issues with the car)
* the best learning experience for me on things mechanical as:
a/ I hadn’t spent any interest in them before owning a car and
b/ it was actually easy to work on.I still look back on it fondly, even though I think my driving to fixing ratio was around 3:1………..
