Car Won't Start, Suspect Bad Gas (Vid Inside)
 

Video: Link

So, Friday night I want to a local car show. I filled up with 93 at Food City and drove to the show, then drove to a place for food afterwords. Total driving distance on roughly 14.5 gallons of FC 93 is just under 6 miles. After eating, I get in my Max to start it, it cranks, starts to fire, then dies. Not thinking anything of it, I turned the key again. The only thing that happened is what you see in the video: It cranks, but never fires. Maybe twice it would start to fire, but still died.

I had 4drspeed (96 SE) with me, and we did the best troubleshooting we could at 12:30 AM. We made sure the fuel pump was on with the key in the Run position. We tried cranking the car while pumping the gas pedal. Still nothing. The alternator and battery are both fine, and are less than 2 years old. The car cranks like it's got plenty of power, and all the accessories work fine. The starter should also be fine, but has never been replaced or serviced. I turned off all the accessories, lights, etc when starting, too.

Basically, I'm wondering if I got some really bad gas at Food City. This is the first time this has happened, and it's had no issues starting before (other than when my last battery was about dead). I left the car where it was, and plan to go back to troubleshoot it tomorrow. I suspect that if the gas is bad, I'll have to siphon it out and get some quality fuel. Hopefully the "maintenance free" fuel filter and/or pump will still be alright.

Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Cliffs: Car has 144.6k miles. Good alternator, battery, and starter. Cranks like normal, but won't fire. Suspect bad gas.

mine did the same thing,

It also exhibited this issue last winter (SEE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfSdyipUP6Q) WHERE IT would crank and then die.....needless to say it ended up being the IACV, and the throttle body

I just recently had my starter replaced, where the starter got to the point where it was doing that, but would start to click....

I highly doubt it was gas....my car was doing this same thing before I got the starter replaced, however, I did also think it could have been my spark plugs...but IT WASNT, as they were gapped properly and all

^ Hmmm... IACV. I'll have to check that this afternoon. Hopefully I can get it started and to my parent's house. It's currently in a parking lot a good 25 minutes away. :(

try hitting your starter and at the same time turn the ignition but make sure that you hit the starter and not the grown bolt, you don't want a fuse to blow on you. if you see that it wants to star don't stop hitting it.

That's almost exactly what we did! 4drspeed managed to tap on the starter (he'd done this before, as his was having problems not too long ago) and get it to crank for a split second, but that's it. We didn't try hitting the starter and turning the key at the same time, though. May have to try that, too.

?
I thought it was cranking ok?

Could also be a bad MAF ... if you have someone that lives near by, you could try swapping in there MAF to see if your car will turn over and hold its idle ... if nothing else it will eliminate the MAF as the problem.

hope, MAF wont do that
most likely is the key when the chip inside goes bad
try another key.

Sounds like the key to me too, or you might have something causing RF interference (pick up anything at the show?). I think there's a procedure you have to follow if you've failed to start the car with the right chip (in my old car, I would have to leave the key in the car in the 'ON' position for like 10 minutes for it to reset...thanks to an intermittent starter).

So I decided to dig out my extra keys, found those, and decided to inspect the key I'd been using. Wouldn't you know it, but the damn chip was gone! Needless to say, I'm waiting on a ride to my car and I'll try the other keys. Sounds like it's a simple problem with an even easier simpler solution. Thanks, everyone! I'll report back once I get my car back to my apartment.

:D thats good hope that it turn on lol

So far, so good. First two attempts to crank it the engine just keep cranking, but no fire. Third attempt it sputtered slightly and started up. Drove it gently for about 10 min, then tested out WOT. Been fine since then. I'll see if it does anything suspicious after it's been sitting out overnight.

Thanks, everyone! I wouldn't even have thought to check the chip if not for someone here. And just to add on, the key I was using was an Ebay blank (black square plastic part) that I had cut & programmed by a local dealer. I was stupid enough to play catch with it last night, too. :rolleyes:

Edit: ignore what I said here...


Other useful info:

I have heard that some take out the chip and tape it close to the ignition, so they can use any key that's been cut.


Brent