Sometimes my 2006 Chevy Colorado does not start. It starts most of the time, but once every few weeks, it will not start. The engine turns over, but apparently no ignition. If I wait for about 10 minutes, it starts up. It fails mostly on a warm engine, but also failed once while cold.
My question is: are these failures being logged so that a mechanic can figure it out later?
How would you try to fix?
That may be an early indication that the crankshaft position sensor is starting to fail.
When a crank sensor starts to fail, it doesn’t always turn on the Check Engine light
That’s one of the problems of diagnosing bad crank sensors if the problem is intermittent.
Tester
Had that problem in a previous car, had the wife stop by the dealer every time she passed by. We had 2 tows to the dealership under warranty verified by the tow truck driver, no start, glad we bought the $1400 7 year extended warranty and it was 4 years old at the time, it covered tows and repairs, then after the tow to the dealer the car started right up. No possible explanation at this point they say. Asked the dealer to be on high alert if she stopped by and the engine would not start. Not to long later she stopped by the dealer and it would not start. They were so cooperative and on high alert. Checked it out right away, determined it was a bad fuel pump and replaced it and fixed the problem no charge. Diagnosing in failure mode is the best method in my book, otherwise you are chasing ghosts. No event logging or cel etc. Sure Many say I lost money on the extended warranty deal, but times were tight, and 2 tows, 2 analysis charge and nothing getting done would have really cost me money, and then the free repair. It is insurance, Maybe I did not break even but it was nice to know I did not have to start turning in change to pay for useless services.
That is exactly what happened with my Miata a few years back. Same symptoms, sometimes it would crank without starting, sometimes it would start just fine.