Car will crank but will not start

SMAKMAN35

MEMBER
2012 FORD FOCUS
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
115,000 MILES

I'm able to turn the fuel pump on and off. The car was hit on the left side and only curtain airbags were deployed. I had a mechanic run codes and he said the airbag module and airbags is keeping it from starting. This happened to me once before but I disconnected the battery and it seemed to work for months. This time it happened while driving and was able to put it in neutral and restart like 4 times before I pulled over. Would the airbags keep the car from starting? Could it be something other like an O2 sensor? When the car does crank it also cranks a specific number of times.

Saturday, September 28th, 2019 AT 12:29 PM

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Hi,

The short answer is yes. However, it depends on what codes are in the system. Some codes in the ABS will not prevent the start but if the crash impact sensors are the cause (which is likely because this is what tells the airbags to deploy then it will prevent a start.

As for cranking the specific number of times, that is by design. Basically the PCM determines the amount of times to crank the engine to try to start the vehicle. This is so that the starter does not get worn out and someone cannot just crank the engine excessively.

Unfortunately, we are going to have to dig into the codes and repair them before we can move onto other issues.

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Sunday, September 29th, 2019 AT 9:58 AM