I parked somewhere to get dinner and came back and the car wouldn't start. Someone ran to get some starter fluid for me since we thought that it was maybe fuel related, but no luck. Turns out, after disconnecting the battery for a minute, the car finally started up. To me this sounds like something electrical. Is there something wrong with the ecu or something? This happened a couple months ago and after having the car towed home, the damn car started right up so I thought it was just some freak occurrence. Does anyone know what's going on? I feel like I can't rely on my car getting to work since I commute and what if disconnecting the battery doesn't work anymore? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

I had the same problem before until I replaced the crank sensor. It's been a while, maybe people can give u better advise.

 

Thanks for the response. Did you get a CEL when it happened? I have no CEL when this happens. Is it possible that the circuits in the ecu are old and not working properly anymore or something? One other thing I noticed is that the group of wires coming from the ecu are hanging over the oil filter. Maybe the heat from the filter is bad for the wires?

 

Very unlikely that the ECU is bad. Could be your coolant temp sensor - they cause all kinds of screwy issues when they start going bad. They don't have to be bad enough to trip a CEL to be bad enough to cause issues.

 

How to test the coolant temp sensor?

 

Are you kidding me?? So a cts could have an effect on whether or not the car starts? I guess I wouldn't complain though comparing the price of a cts vs. an ecu. The temp gauge never really does anything weird though, so would it be worth getting a new one to find out?

 

had a similar problem, i would just disconnect the battery everywhere i went and then reconnect it to start it. i still to this day do not know what caused it, i sold the car 3 months ago

 

The issue is getting worse now. I have to reconnect the battery like every other day now and it's really frustrating. So from what I've researched, it could be the coolant temperature sensor, crankshaft position sensor or the cam position sensor. Whatever it is, it's getting worse. I want the damn CEL to come on so I can check what code is causing this but it's not happening. What should I do, start off by getting a new CTS? (least expensive to most expensive trial and error??)

Oh and sometimes the engine sounds weird like there is a helicopter in the engine bay if you know what I mean. Kind of like an uneven idle. The car drives perfectly though.

 

Are you saying there's a knock?

 

I don't think so. It's hard to explain. It sounds like a helicopter that's far away like propellers chopping through the air, but the sound is really subtle and the engine slightly shakes. Happens only once in a while. I hope that's not engine knock since I never use anything less than 91.