Will not crank randomly

JONN A. LEDDY

MEMBER
2000 DODGE INTREPID
2.7L
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
189,000 MILES

My car developed a problem where it will not start randomly. Usually it will have to sit anywhere from an hour to a day or two after using the car before it will hopefully start again. It did this many years ago for a few months and then just went back to running normal.

After a cross country trip this January, I stopped to put fuel in on the road and when I went to turn the car on, it would not crank. The only noise I heard was what sounds like the fuel pump priming. I still hear that little buzz, but that is all. The engine does not crank/turn over. The car did run out of coolant however in sub zero temperatures in Wyoming and luckily I caught it right away and had spare anti freeze. After that, the car ran perfect for one thousand miles until this no start thing came back.

The car has not cut off while driving, and does not run rough. There is no smoke or anything coming from the car either. The dash lights come on and go off just like normal when I turn the key. Does anyone know what is wrong with it? I have never seen a concrete solution on several message boards, and it has been at a shop here in town for five days and they cannot figure it out either.

1 Reply

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

Very hard to nail down, the only way to find out is to be able to test the starting system when it is not working, and as it is so random, this can be a real pain, places that can be a concern is ignition switch, starter motor, range switch, starter relay if fitted, bad connections on main power and starter solenoid wiring, you so as you can see you really need the system in fail mode to start any real diagnosis, I doubt that a scan will help here, but if you have not done so it may be worth a try to see if any codes are set.