My car won't start after 10 days away, New York

My car won’t start after I came back from vacation in 10 days. I tried to jump first. Did not work. I tried with a small charger, with the gas pedal all the way down. It started for a second then died. I repeated several times. Same thing, started but died immediately. My coworkers think it’s the fuel pump or fuel-line filter. How can I present the case to mechanics in the most intelligent way so I won’t be charged the premium they charge women whom they consider have no knowledge about car?

It could be a fuel pump or filter. It could be that the pump was going bad and after sitting for 10 days if finally gave up the ghost. That is pretty easy and fast to trouble shoot a bad fuel pump with a simple test using a pressure gage. It couild be your fuel filter or tank had some crud in it and it finally settled into an area and got sucked up and plugged the filter. Some times a plugged filter will act like a bad pump, but usually a plugged filter will allow some pressure vs no pressure at all. Holding the gas pedal down when you try to start it won’t help unless it was flooded, and this doesn’t sound like the case.

Did it CRANK but not start, or was the battery dead??

What to tell a mechanic:

“My car will not start. Could please check and see if it’s a spark or fuel problem and call me with a repair estimate?” After they call, if their diagnosis sounds reasonable, ask if they will guarantee their repair will fix the car, for the price quoted. If they will not, then they have no faith in their own work and you should not have much faith in it either…

I am not sure about your car, but mine shuts off the injectors if the accel pedal is all the way down before or while cranking.

There are just as many men who have no car knowledge. How a person is treated, most often, doesn’t depend on that person’s sex. In fact, some mechanics will be more fair with women; because, most of them have (had) mothers.
The symptoms on your car do seem to be more of a fuel problem. To show that you are savy, when the mechanic calls with the estimate, ask what the static (engine not running) fuel pressure is. If they started the engine, ask the fuel pressure at idle, in Drive; then, at 2000 rpm, in Drive.