I have had this car for a few months now. Several times the car just wont start. No noise from the starter at all. All the dash lights light up as normal. The battery and alternator are fine. I tried moving the shifter from P to N to see if it would start then. It didnt make a difference. When this happened yesterday, I tried for about 15min with no luck. I towed the car home and it started right up. It has started several times since.

I replaced all 3 coil pack in the past few weeks for some misfire codes.

Its a 99 with 123k miles and 3800 engine.

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

 

is your key worn down that little resistor thing could not be making contact? try cleaning it and the ing. cylinder OH! and is the security light on?

 

Does the fuel pump come on?

 

I have 2 sets of keys for this car. One set looks like new, the other is a little worn. When it wouldnt start, I swapped keys and it didnt make a difference. The security light is not on. At least I dont remember seeing it on.

As for the fuel pump, Im not able to hear it when its working fine. Its real quiet.

 

well you shouldnt hear it when its "working" you should hear it prime when you first turn the key

 

Either way if the pump is working or not, the starter should engage.

 

check out the wire connection to the starter and check if there is to much resistance on the wire or if the there is a loose connection.

 

Same problem I had it was a 2$ battery terminal bolt (stripped bad connection) lights and everything worked before turning over and nothing.

 

I had this happen to me a few years ago. The problem was a faulty ground connection. If you should wind up in the same scenario again where the car seems dead but the lights work, try this. Pop the hood, take a jumper cable and connect the black side to your negative terminal on your battery and the other black side to the bolt in front where your hood clasps in front. Then try and start it. Basically what you 're doing here is giving the negative side of the battery and alternate ground strap. Also make sure your cables are clear of anything that moves under that hood or you're going to have even bigger problems. If you've got a bad connection to your ground strap this will get the car started. NOW the problem is that you're going to have to drive it like this to limp it home. Your hood will partially click in but it won't lock in all the way so don't go like 90 mph like this or you could get a nasty surprise. In a pinch to limp the thing home this will work. If you were to start the vehicle like this and then remove the cable, the connection would have to go back to your faulty ground wire. At this point your computer will freak out and just cycle through it's diagnostics over and over and the engine will pulse on and off. It's a SWEET effect, not. In any event. Give that a try and if it fires right up by giving it an alternate ground then you know it's the negative connection on the battery. If that's the case then it could be a couple things, the cable or the connection. Try the connection first because it's easier. Just unbolt it. Clean the battery terminal with a wire brush, get the drebris off with a paper towel, put some electrolitic tune up grease on the bolt and the face of the ground wire that contacts the battery and then tighten it back into the socket. Wiggle the wire a little bit to make sure there's no play in the connection after you've tightened it. Then try and fire it up. If it's still dead and the bypass trick works with the jumper cable, then you've got a bad ground cable and you need to replace it. Hope this helps and let us know what you find out!

Thanks,

Tom