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Car help (won't start. sometimes.)
DasUberEdward
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Does anyone know what would cause a car to randomly and sporadically whenever it gets such a whim not start? It cranks up but it just won't turn over and I end up having to bump start it. It's getting really really annoying as I can never predict when this will happen so i'm starting to park on hills 
If it helps you at all it's a 96 Probe GT with a Mazda KLZE, all of the probe places I frequented a few years back have all vanished apparently so i'm not sure where else to turn.
To put emphasis on how strange this is I can try to start the car up and nothing, if I leave for a while and come back it may start as if there was nothing wrong in the first place. It's blowing my mind because it can do the alternative. The car can drive fine for weeks then bam out of nowhere it has no intention of starting.
Whenever I bump start the car it WILL start up afterward. For example there have been times when we tried the bump start and failed but got the car to crank a little bit. Then there's no need to try to bump it again because it will start from the ignition. I don't get it and I need to fix it.
If it helps you at all it's a 96 Probe GT with a Mazda KLZE, all of the probe places I frequented a few years back have all vanished apparently so i'm not sure where else to turn.
To put emphasis on how strange this is I can try to start the car up and nothing, if I leave for a while and come back it may start as if there was nothing wrong in the first place. It's blowing my mind because it can do the alternative. The car can drive fine for weeks then bam out of nowhere it has no intention of starting.
Whenever I bump start the car it WILL start up afterward. For example there have been times when we tried the bump start and failed but got the car to crank a little bit. Then there's no need to try to bump it again because it will start from the ignition. I don't get it and I need to fix it.
DasUberEdward on
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First thing, make sure you have a good clean contact at the battery. Remove the terminals, clean any corrosion(There are gadgets you can get for this) and reinstall making sure they are tight.
If this does not take car of it check the connection at the starter and the ground cable(Some cars have a cable grounding the chassis and motor)
If this does not work, it is time to get out the multi meter and start running diagnostics.
It does start. Often. It's just that sometimes it suddenly decides to not start at the most inopportune times which leaves me unable to say that I actually have reliable transportation. I
I've connected and reconnected the battery, spark plugs, lots of vacuum hoses, fuses. . .basically anything that seems like it could not quite be in place i've removed and checked and then firmly returned to the original position.
Are you saying the motor turns over but it will not fire and run
or
The motor stops turning over?
The "cranks but will not turn over, but will run when bumped off" part is confusing, one is a starting system problem, the other is an ignition isue
Yeah sorry for miswording it will not fire and run. So the motor goes through the usual ignition sounds but it never actually fires up and runs.
I've already changed the distributor and checked for problems with it. The problem still persist.
2. Have your battery tested/replaced (cheap insurance especially if your battery is 5+ years old)
3. Have your alternator tested
hth
I have power going to everything and as far as I can tell the terminals and the battery itself are fine it's less than a year old. I haven't checked the alternator but if there was a problem with it I wouldn't have any power right?
Valves checked and cleaned I honestly couldn't say but the spark plugs are fine. What makes this suck so bad is that the majority of opinions are that the mechanic can't figure out what's wrong with the car if it isn't not starting. So generally it seems if I had it towed to a mechanic there's a good chance that the car will start when it gets there making it all for nothing.
The engine only has about 50K on it in mileage (and that's a high estimate), but then again it's an import so you can't be certain.
Here's a way to tell if you have spark. Do this at your own risk. I've done this many times and have never been shocked (and from what I understand it shouldn't be that bad of a shock if you do). But once again, do this at your own risk:
Uncap the wire from one of your more easily-accessible spark plugs, remove the plug, and plug it back into the wire. Touch the tip of the plug (the part that sparks) to the engine block to ground it (don't push hard enough to bend the gap, obviously), then have someone try to start the car. You should be able to see the spark pretty clearly if you are, in fact, getting spark. If the engine happens to actually start while you're doing this instead of simply cranking, make sure you shut it off immediately.
This sounds like an issue with the crank sensor or hall effect unit. But both of those should throw a code.
A bad cap can cause this kind of problem, but it is usually accompanied with shitty running once you get it started.
The motor spins over so the battery and alternator are not in question. There could be a bad connection elsewhere. Corrosion that causes an intermittent ignition failure. But, it should throw a code that will cause your check engine light to come on.
If you do have that light on, many AutoZone like shops will check it for free. Write the code down, post it here and look around for yourself to see what it might be.
Any other details? Does it happen when the humidity is high. When you try to hot start(Starting shortly after turning the car off) Does it happen when the motor is dead cold? This could be a failure in the cold start sequence, the car is not getting enough fuel to start.
It never happens on a hot start. Cold starts seem to be the problem. I think the shortest interval of time that it happened after turning the car off was about an hour and a half. I have tried to see what the check engine code was but all of the dudes at Autozone just give a puzzeled look and say that they aren't getting anything when they plug in the scanner for the codes. So I kind of gave up on that.
Anyway i'll take a look at MX6.com, I was once on a probe forum but it appears to have vanished which is strange because it had thousands of members. I would have asked there if it wasn't for what appears to be an untimely demise.
You're probably getting spark and air. Probably. Check the plugs, see if there is any massive corrosion or build up. If it's clean, it's a clogged injector, so run some good fuel injector cleaner through it. Was the fuel filter changes when the motor was dropped in? If not, do that. How many miles on the fuel pump? I had mine go at 80k (03 Cavalier) so you never know.
I had the same problem you've had, but it turned out my battery was almost dead. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn't. However since you describe it as trying to turn over, I'm confused. Is this a manual transmission by any chance? (I may have missed that when I skimmed)
Plugs are good. Fuel injector/pump may not be good as it's been with the car for it's 120K or so life. The fuel filter was changed though.
I've been thinking that it could be an electrical short but I've had no way of checking all of the possibilities for that.
It's a manual and again I don't think it can be the battery as everything inside of the car (lights, radio, etc) is fully operational and I can try to start it up all night long with no noticeable diminish in strength
Oh and hot start just means that generally if I've had the car running for a bit and I try to restart it there will be no problems. But if the car sits for a while and all of the components get cold there's a chance it won't start.
Fair enough. But yeah, all of my internal equipment was working too, and had the hardest of time starting it during some days.
Isn't something like this common with older manual transmission cars? Something like having to get out and pushing to get it to turn over? I know my dad's truck stalls all the time if he idles on hills.
Just a thought.
We have no codes.
Car starts when hot but not cold(sometimes)
Car does start when push started.
Do you know someone that can do a fuel pressure test or are you willing to buy the tester? I think you have a problem with the fuel system leaking down pressure while sitting and then rebuilding that pressure to a proper operating point when you try to start it manyhours later.
With a pressure tester you could hook it up and see what is going on. You will also need to find the correct pressure(probably around 50psi) to verify it is doing what it is supposed to. The system should hold pressure pretty well and build to operating pressure when you key to "run", it should happen before you even reach the "start" position.
I know this is extremely old but I have the exact same problem and it's driving me insane. Have you found out what the solution was?