2002 Chevrolet Malibu Wont start after running

TANKK2014

MEMBER
2002 CHEVROLET MALIBU
3.1L
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
220,000 MILES

I have a 2002 Chevy malibu 3.1. It runs fine, even at idle. But if I shut off the engine and try to start it again, it wont start unless I give it gas. Once it starts, again, it runs fine.

Friday, April 24th, 2015 AT 7:14 AM

3 Replies

RIVERMIKERAT

MECHANIC
6,110 POSTS

Your vehicle is fuel injected. This means that when you depress the accelerator pedal you're actually giving it more air. This tells me the computer is trying to make the mixture too rich when starting. Take it to a shop that pulls codes for free and have them pull hard and soft codes.

Before that, you can remove and clean the spark plugs one by one. Then see what happens.

SPONSORED LINKS

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Friday, April 24th, 2015 AT 10:32 AM

TANKK2014

MEMBER
25 POSTS

Thank you so much. I'll give that a try. I knew it was fuel injected but didn't know that you feed it air with the pedal when trying to start, so I learned something new already

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

+1

Friday, April 24th, 2015 AT 10:45 AM

RIVERMIKERAT

MECHANIC
6,110 POSTS

Yep. Fuel injected engines determine how much fuel the engine requires and then adjust the fuel pressure and the time the injector is open (called injector dwell) to control how much fuel enters the cylinder. When you "step on the gas" you open an air flap that lets in more air. This airflow is measured and the correct amount of fuel is injected.

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Friday, April 24th, 2015 AT 10:50 AM