no start condition

[Oldsman]

My nephew has 01 GL with 3400 and he is having some issues and thought i run it by you guys

He will drive his car to somewhere and when he shutsoff and then comes back out, 5-15 minutes later, to start it, it cranks but won't fire. trys and trys but no fire. lets it sit for a few hours and then it starts.

Now the SES light does come on and by the time he gets a chance to get it scan the light goes out.

[jayson_waltz]

security system acting up? thats what the crank and no start, but does later sound like. but as for the light, it shouldn't matter that the light goes out b4 it gets scanned. they can look into recent history and see all codes throw since last time they were cleared. thats what i always do when my ho has a intermettent light, go in with tech 2, clear codes, wait for it to happen again, and there ya go the code you are looking for is there even if the light had gone out.

[AftermathAlero]

fuel pump going out?

[clutch1]

Make him carry around a couple tools, a spark tester (and boot pliers, of course) and a fuel pressure gauge that attaches to the rail.

That way next time this happens, he can quickly check to see if he has proper spark and if he has fuel pressure to the rail.

Only run the checks when the car is in the no-start condition, otherwise the results won't mean a thing.

That will at least provide a starting point.

If both of those pass, try pressure testing the cylinders.. checking the various sensors (cam, crank, umm.. throttle maybe?).. basically anything that would make the car not want to run if it was having an issue. When things get hot sometimes they won't work again until cooled off..

If you've got an O-scope, check out cam and crank sensors' wave forms, to see if they're both performing properly (compare wave forms of no-start to wave forms from when the car's running right).

There's more that I'm missing, but that's a few thing's I'd check for starters.. I'm no expert by any means though.

[Runaboveit]

x2 on the crankshaft position sensor

[Oldsman]

it's not a security thing but i told him to let me know when it happens again so I can check fuel pressure and a few other things. He's 17 so kitty is more important right now............lol

[A57]

Kinda sounds like a weak fuel pump or bad ignition module.
running the OBD 2 scanner at anytime will tell you something...