My fiance calls me this morning and said her car is cranking over fine but it wont start and it smells like gas. I drive over and she is right it wont start and the gas smell is strong out of the exhaust. She calls a tow truck to come take it to the dealer. 1 1/2 later the driver shows up and hops in the car and puts it in neutral and cranks it. It starts up and was blowing heavy smoke for a couple seconds till the engine cleared out. It ran fine after that and started right back up.

So my fiance said to tow it in anyway because thats not right and there is something wrong and she drives a ton for work and needs the car to be right. Anybody here have any idea what this could be? I am very mechanicaly inclined (I build race cars and such) but I have no clue what could cause this. Its obviously getting fuel and it cranked over just fine which leaves no spark. But what would cause it to have no spark then suddenly it has spark again and runs fine? Crank possition sensor? These cars are pretty foreign to me.

 

Dealer just called and said it was the battery. I told him if it was the battery then why did it crank over normal and flood the engine with fuel and not start. He didnt know what to say and said all there tests came back normal but the battery failed the test and the computer hadnt thrown any codes.

Is it possible a battery thats a little weak will cause these cars to act a little crazy like this?

 

If thats all then your lcuky. low brake fluid levels will cause yor brake, VDC and slip lights to come on.

 

So you think its possible thats all the problem was? Just seems odd to me that it cranked over fine and flooded with fuel and the cause was the battery? Just doesnt sound right to me but I guess with todays newer electronics anything is possible. I am taking her to pick it up at 1 so I guess the next couple of weeks will tell us if it was indeed the battery or not. She said if it does it again then the car is gone because she travels for work all the time.

 

The battery being low could cause it to crank poorly or not crank at all. If the car doesn't start, fuel may continue to flow, and if she tried to "help" it start by stepping on the accelerator, then that could've also contributed to the flooding. With the flooded engine, you just have to wait it out--hence it started when the tow truck driver got there. I think your fiance's car should be fine after this.

Similar situation--my wife's lexus had a very low battery, and the car was sputtering and jerking as she was driving; once I replaced the battery, the car was fine... Go figure...

 

Darn fangled electronic contraptions! LOL

Well hopefully the battery fixes the problem. From my experiance with cars and trucks if it cranks over fast then it should start. Her car was cranking over like normal.

 

WHO DO YOU build cars for ?????
whats your location ???

 

For myself and I build race engines for friends. I live in maryland.


Here is my 2 cars. You can see my fiances G35 behind the red camaro.






Here is the 63 nova I built for my father. Its still a work in progress.

 

I actually just recently had the same situation. I drove the car home from work and all was fine. I go out to the car 2 days later to go back to work and it just cranked over. To me, sounded like the starter solenoid was out. Heard the winding...but no go on the engine.

I order a starter online, wait a week, install it. Go to start her up...same sound...same result. I feared all kinds of things that cost a lot of money to fix. So before I took it to the dealer, I got some backup help (who knows more about them than I...not hard to do). He checked for spark...ok. Then we pulled the Z-pipe off and sprayed some carb cleaner in the TB while cranking the car over WITH the gas pedal all the way down. She started right up...and as mentioned before, accompanied by a cloud of smoke out the back. The car ran for a sec or so before I cut it off. We put everything back together...tried to start and vola!...like it never happened.

He said that I should reset the ECU and other resets just in case. I think he was right though because I noticed a difference in the throttle response. He suggested doing a reset on things about every other year or so just to make sure that everything gets re-adjusted properly. Needless to say, haven't had the issue again.

 

Sometimes you can have these 1-time issues that never come back...

But if you are checking something I would check the voltage to ignition coils and the fuel pressure at idle, make sure they are both in spec and you should be fine.

 

their tests just shows that you should replace the battery because it's on the way out. In all likeliness its not the problem. If it was the battery it wouldn't be cranking over esp. after so many times and the tow truck driver getting there and starting it up. It's probably the notorious cam sensor but you'll have to wait and see if it does it again.