Please Help me for the Love of God!

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

My last Mechanic suggested I see an exorcist. Which might not still be a bad idea…

Cannot find the problem. Mechanic cannot find the problem. Spent $99 on diagnostics revealing nothing.

So… I have a 2001 Chrysler LHS named “Layla”, she’s a luxurious old southern girl, and apparently, she has a real sense of humor because Nobody can figure out why she is messing with me…

The issue: I go out and start her up first thing in the morning, starts right up, runs fine. Once she has been running a while, maybe I get to work and I shut her down. Then, it’s a crap shoot wether she will start up again or not. Mostly she does, but sometimes not…

If she doesn’t start back up, she’ll be cranking away like crazy, and nothing. Plenty of cranking power. Shouldn’t have to pump the gas because she’s fuel injected, but if I do, it helps. She’ll chug and sputter roughly, and then ultimately fire up. If SHE DOES fire up, she’ll run all day. No problems. Smooth as silk.

But sometimes, she won’t. So, I finally take a few minutes to call a tow truck. Then I pray, “Come on Layla Baby, You gotta get me outta here… one more try”…starts right up. Maybe roughly, but if she starts, she’s on. No prob.

But every morning when she’s been sitting overnight, no problem. I start her up, she laughs at me, the day begins again.

Fuel pump replaced about a year ago. When that went bad, there was no action at all. Could not start her at all. This is not that.

Thoughts? Please? I treat her so sweet… Maybe I’m just not her type?

2

Pull the oil dip stick out, and smell the oil.

Does it have a gas odor to it?

Tester

3

Don’t know. Never done that. Will check! What if so?

4

Since the fuel pump was replaced, which is where the fuel pressure regulator is located, if there’s gas in the oil, the only way it can get there is thru leaking injectors.

Tester

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5

It could be a bad connection, or failing fuel pump again. If you are not mechanically inclined stop by the mechanics every chance you get, have them on alert, so they can diagnose it in failure mode and find the problem.

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6

Yeah I guess I am focusing on fuel issues too. Intermittent pump, leaky injector, stuck injector, etc. Only way to tell is to have a fuel pressure tester on it when it happens and see what the pressure is.

My Park Ave had about 30K on it and would be hard to start intermittently. In the shop it with the tester on it, it would start every time, then once while the mechanic and I were looking at it, lo and behold, the pressure was zero due to a stuck injector. A professional cleaning took care of it.

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7

Wild guessing without car in hand and problem in front of me, I might theorize the ASD relay is balky.

The ASD relay can fail over time due to the high current draw of the fuel pump.

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8

I have replaced the ASD relay on several Mopars as a cheap shot in the dark due to the high likelihood of it being the problem and the outrageous cost of diagnosing intermittent problems like that…

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9

Intermittents like this sometimes require a volt meter be installed in the passenger compartment to monitor the system (battery) voltage and the fuel pump voltage, and a fuel pressure meter installed so the driver can monitor the fuel pressure. A faulty fuel pump, fuel pump power supply, fuel pressure regulator, or crank position sensor could explain the symptoms. Arrange with your shop so that when it fails, you’ll have it towed to them immediately, and they’ll stop what they are doing and make time to test to see what’s wrong at the time the problem is actually happening.

If all that’s already been tried, you’ll probably have to ask the shop to have one of their techs drive the car as their daily driver. Eventually the problem will occur, and the tech should be able to figure it out then.

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10

Seems like for $30 it would be worth a shot to replace the shutdown relay. The main relay used to be a problem with Honda too and would fail on a hot day, shutting the fuel pump down.

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11

Crank position sensor is where I would look

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12

Despite advertising myself as a “professional mechanic” there have been numerous times when throwing the part that is the likely cause at an intermittent problem has been the best choice. Even with all manner of diagnostic equipment and years of experience intermittent failures are outrageously time consuming and therefore expensive to diagnose while usually quite cheep to repair. Cam angle sensors, MAP sensors, ignition modules and ASD relays seem to jump to the top of the list of “usual suspects.”

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