Intermittent no start issue

MERKONER420365

MEMBER
2003 MITSUBISHI GALANT
2.4L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
180,000 MILES

Car starts and runs fine then I get to destination shut car off. Come back to car and it wont start. Keep cranking engine over with short breaks in between and poof car starts, and will work perfect for a few days even weeks sometimes. Then out of the blue it wont start. Then if I keep trying to start it will eventually start. Maybe 5-15 times of trying to get it to run. Then I can smell a lot of excessive gas fumes. Any ideas?

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
108,300 POSTS

Welcome to 2CarPros.

Does this happen only when the engine is hot? If you smell gas fumes, that seems to indicate you are not getting ignition spark to the plugs. I asked about a warm / hot engine because the crankshaft positions sensor can begin to fail when they get older based on heat.

Take a look through these links:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-crank-shaft-angle-sensor-works

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-a-bad-crankshaft-sensor

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/crankshaft-angle-sensor-replacement

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What should be done to confirm the sensor is possibly the issue is to check for ignition spark when it fails to start. Here is a link that shows how that is done:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-an-ignition-system

If you have a live data scanner, you can also check via the data link connector. Check for an RPM signal. No signal most always points to a bad sensor.

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I attached a picture for you to locate the sensor.

Let me know what you find or if you have other questions.

Take care,
joe

Image (Click to make bigger)