Minivan wont start

This morning my wife went to start her van and it wont kick over. It cranks and tries but nothing. I hooked up a diagnostic reader and it isnt showing any codes but the i/m readiness fails. Anyone have any ides?

It’s either a no-fuel or a no-spark situation. I don’t know how to interpret that scanner. Spraying some starting ether into the air intake and trying to start it should give a clue: if there’s no diff, it’s probably no spark.

How old is timing belt?

1 Like

That’s a third possibility - no compression. It would sound different when being turned over by the starter, and a hand held at the exhaust pipe would feel no pressure.

Thank you for the responses. I’m not sure how old the timing belt is. I will check the fuel pump in the morning. And also the try the tail pipe as well.

Try the “key dance:” Turn key to Run (not all the way to Start) for a few seconds. The fuel pump should run briefly then shut off. Key to Off then back to Run, wait a few seconds… do this a few times then turn the key all the way to Start. Any luck?

If the readiness monitors aren’t set to “ready” , that could indicate a battery or alternator problem. The RM’s are reset if the computer loses electrical power, even momentarily. Did you run the battery down while attempting to start the engine? If so, that would explain the RM problem.

As mentioned above fails to crank is usually one of these 3: fuel, spark, compression. Do whatever’s the easiest test to do w/your vehicle to determine which of those 3 it is. I usually begin by checing for a healthy visible spark at a spark plug during cranking.

Trouble is it doesn’t fire up and run.

So I took a look again this morning at everything, and after trying to charge the battery I noticed the battery light on the dash was one. I ran and got a new battery and it seems fine now. Drove it for a few miles, turned it off and on. I hooked the foxwell back up and it still shows the same thing. But it’s running and sounds fine. Thank you all for your feedback.

It will take some driving cycles for the monitors to go to the ready state.