Strange No-Start problem

On my dad's EJ22 with EJ25D heads in his '98, he has a condition that I will be looking into this week (traded him cars - wish me luck!).

 

Sometimes, his car won't start. It will always turn over, but when it won't start it sounds like no spark or no fuel. The cure has always been for me to drive 20 to 80 miles to the car, at which point it will start immediately He believes that he has noticed a trend of this only happening with about a 1/4 tank of gas or less. Never any problems once it starts, and it runs and drives perfectly.

 

I'll be driving the car for a week or so and may post more info as I find it. In the mean time, any ideas?

Unplug the battery first. Check your spark plugs, spark plug wires, coil pack, & wiring to the coil pack. Also check the grounds in the engine bay. If they're rusted, remove the bolts to each ground & touch them up with some sandpaper, then bolt the grounds back in. For fuel, replace the fuel filter & inspect the fuel pump to see if it turns on when it's supposed to. Check the fuel injectors & you may also want to check for fuel leaks. Then plug the battery back in & try to start it.

I'm guessing here, but I want to call it a fuel issue because of the correlation with your fuel level.

 

Is it possible that the tank has older gas? If the old stuff had a lower density than new fuel, then is it possible that this could only be burnt when the internals were at operating temperature?

 

Complete shot in the dark.

Crank Position Sensor is commonly at fault on these motors when a no-start situation occurs. Luckily it is a simple part to replace.

is the engine hot or cold during thses no starts?

Wow, the CEL is on. That seems like a no brainer place to start. 5 codes:

1. Mis in 3

2. Mis in 4

3. Knock Sensor

4. and 5. both related to crank position sensor.

 

I deleted all codes, and the knock sensor immediately returned. I'll tear into that on Wednesday but I doubt that is the no start problem. My money's on the intermittent crank position sensor.

 

Do these sensors fail intermittently? I'd expect it to be dead or alive?

 

To answer other questions, I insisted on starting with a full tune up, including timing belt and pulleys, water pump, fuel filter, spark plugs and wires. I've also swapped the coil with a known good unit with no change. The engine is always cold when this happens. I'm not sure about the fuel level since every thing has checked out on that - I am thinking that is a fluke.

 

Grounds, while most likely adequate, are not perfect - I'll tune that up while I've got it. Thanks to all for the thoughts!

I replaced my CPS a couple months ago. It had a few bouts on intermittent no starts prior to that. One time it did start but would barely hold idle and would die if I applied any throttle.

Before doing the full tune up get that thing running code free! You start tearing it apart like that and it won't run, then whatcha going to do.

I would bet the fuel pump pickup is the issue. This EXACT problem has happened to my 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan after replacing the fuel pump. For some reason the NEW pump doesn't "pickup" at low fuel levels as well as the original. EVERY time I allow the fuel level to drop just under 1/4 tank it requires several key cycles to get fuel pressure up to the engine. I would just continue to keep fuel above 1/2 tank for a few weeks and see if the problem ever returns!

I finally got it to not start today (wait, isn't that backwards?) I got out and shook the CPS wires, and then it fired right up. I'm wondering if a wire got pinched some how. I think its that or the sensor itself - or maybe a dirty connector...

 

And by the way, I did the tune up already. He never mentioned the CEL was on or I would have fixed that first! I knew from when I put the engine together that it needed new plugs and wires and filters etc but he wanted to cheap out.

 

Thanks to all for the help on thinking this out!