98 I30, 75K miles, 60K tune up was done. Car started acting funny last week, hard starts. She cranks fine but doesn't catch. It threw the CEL light once last week when it had a hard time starting, 0505, useless code. Ran fine all day yesterday, now this morning she only cranks, will not fire. Tried cranking with gas pedal on floor, bla bla bla, before we kill the battery, any ideas suggestinos of what we should do, look at next?

Quick note: The plugs are Bosch (I know, but it's not my car)

 

you need several things to start - fuel, spark, compression, timing. If one or more are not there, you won't fire up.

Do you get a fuel smell after all the cranks?

 

UPDATE: Killed the battery cranking it for 15 minutes, so out come the jumper cables. This isn't the first time this car has had hard starts, like I said before it started acting funny just over a week ago. Keep in mind we have Bosh plugs in there. After we hook up the cables, wait a min. or 2 for the battery to charge up a bit, then foot to the floor (WOT) and crank for about a minute straight. I thought I was going to burn out the starter, but then suddenly, it started to fire, one cylinder caught, then another, then another, spitter spatter, VROOOOM with a hugh cloud of black smoke out the back.

It was flooded. Bye bye Bosch and hello NGK!

Let this be a lesson, don't use BOSCH plugs, they SUCK! I'm 10000% sure thats why it hasn't been firing correctly.

 

I respectfully disagree with that statement. Bosch(platinum) plugs are one of the best plugs out there. I have been using those plugs for over 12 years without any problems. Now if you are using the 4-tip Bosch plugs then thats a whole other story. Good luck.

 

I'll be using NGK's next time but how many miles are on the Bosch?