Cranks will not start

The loss of fuel pressure is a dandy clue, however, double-check that you still have spark when the no-start occurs. Too often people get hung up on the first thing they find missing and fail to check for other, related things.

The most common failure involves loss of spark, injector pulses, and fuel pump, but in that case, you will still have fuel pressure because the pump still runs for one second when you turn on the ignition switch. Since you don't have fuel pressure, the best suspect is a failed fuel pump. GM fuel pumps commonly start up, then fail while you're driving, leaving you sitting on the side of the road. Chrysler fuel pumps rarely fail while you're driving. When they fail, they fail to start up, leaving you sitting in the driveway or parking lot. One way that often works to verify this is to bang on the bottom of the gas tank while a helper is cranking the engine. When the fuel pump's motor has worn brushes, they make intermittent contact, and often work enough to get the pump going when the motor is jarred. If this works, the proper fix is to replace the fuel pump. This problem will occur again any time between the next start-up to months from now.