dunerida82

Guys I am running into a problem that has been building up and it finally hit me yesterday. It is a very weird problem and I have no idea what it is. If you could please give me an idea what it is so hopefully I can go get it fixed.

The car is a 1991 305 TBI Camaro RS with a T5 manual transmission. Anytime I use my car I turn the ignition half way and let the fuel pump throw some fuel towards the front of the car. Then I start the car. The problem is is that sometimes there is a delay before I hear the engine turn over. Sometimes this delay from when I turn the ignition the rest of the way can last up to 2-3 full seconds and then it finally goes. Frankly, it is very scary and leaves me with serious doubts when Im using it to get around.

So yesterday I woke up and went to start it and I did the usual thing, waited a couple seconds, let the electric fuel pump throw some gas in the engine then turned it the rest of the way. No dice. Nothin. No sound. This is not the battery, lights, stereo all function. Just nothing. Then later that night I came home and the motor fired right up. Im confused to be honest. And I really hate my ride for stupid reasons like this.

Guys I'm scared to go anywhere. Because it is a damn crapshoot anytime I want to go anywhere because I dont know if this thing is going to start or not.

I need an expert who knows what Im talking about. Please no speculation about some theory about something irrelevant. Im sure I am not the only person whos ever experienced this random starting/non-starting issue. I need some answers here and I know you guys have then.

Thanks Guys, Eric

Stekman

*sub-edit* Misread the post. You mean everything works, EXCEPT the starter functions. Is the security light on my chance?

*edit* this delay you speak of, is it a staring delay, like it cranks for that amount of time? Or does the start click, then finally turn over 2-3 seconds later?

dunerida82

I turn the ignition half way and I hear the electric fuel pump activate. Then I turn the rest of the way to actually start it, and there is a 2-3 second delay before it starts up. There are no sounds at all when I turn the ignition. Nothin at all.

And yesterday morning I tried starting it and I got nothing. 12 hours later I came back at night to try it and it fired right up, with like a 2 second delay though.

Stekman

When's the last time you throroughly cleaned all of the power connections and grounds? That includes the ground behind the head? I would try that first.

dunerida82

I dont do that kind of stuff normally. How do I perform that? I am just an average joe who drives the thing and maintains the fluids. I dont do building or advanced procedures, but Ill try if I know how.

Thundering Z03

You are not alone. I had a 90 model RS that did the very same thing. Everything appeared ok and normal,...but it wouldn't start even though all other funtions worked properly. Battery was good,...starter was fine,...connections were fine. I had everything checked out. Took it to a dealer to put it on a computer. Nothing. It showed absolutely nothing. They told me to call them the next time it happened and they'd tow it to the service bay and check it then. I did that,..it wouldn't start, called them,..tow truck came, did one last check to make sure it wouldn't start, got it to service,..............BAM guess what,...yeah the crappy thing started. They said there isn't anything wrong. All I could say was "YOU think...that I would TOW this thing ALL the way down here if it would START?" The craziest thing that I could do though,....was jump it off. No matter what the case. When it wouldn't start,.....just hook the cables up, and it'd start. At first it was doing this just one in a blue moon,..but after a while it was doing it at least once a month. Sometimes I could wait for just a few minutes....other times it would take all day. I never found out what was causing it, and sadly,....that's really why I got rid of it. It is truly a crazy problem and I hope someone helps you out before you go and do the same thing that I did. And that was "Not trust it." I wish I could help. Good luck with it.

dunerida82

Yeah seriously. This is the most bizarre thing Ive ever heard of. Normally it is fine, but once in a blue moon it just doesnt want to start. Then I leave for an hour and come back and it starts.

Its not right, I hate it. I might just have to get rid of it. Nobody wants to pray that there car starts everytime you step into it.

my3rdgen

I had this problem with 3 differen't cars in my life time, and it was the ignition switch in the column that was bad on one of them, another had a bad battery, it would check out fine, but was still bad because the possitive post was broke off inside the battery, sometimes it would ark istelf back together and last for a week or so before it would crap out again, and the last situation was just corrotion on the battery terminals.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: If your bat. posts are clean, I would look into the connections on the starter, the ground cable from the block/head to the chassis as mentioned before, and check the starter solenoid, if it still persists, try a new battery, if the battery you now have is new, I would be looking at the ignition switch.

Thundering Z03

Could possibly be one of those things mentiond, but in my case, none of those would work. One, I got a new battery, that didn't work,...got new starter,...still did it,....and as for ignition switch,...if it was that,...then why would it start when I would jump start it? But any of those reasons that my3rdgen suggested might just be it. Give it a look and see.

sellmanb

cant be stressed enough, check your grounds. If that's not it, then have your ignition switch checked. Also check the grounds under the dash that control your ignition switch, if that is loose or corroded then you will experience the said problems.

This happened to my car about 2 weeks after I got it, the bendix wouldnt engage, and gave the same problem as you said. I went around, cleared off all my main grounds, still did it. I got curious, and took my starter off, found a huge crack all around the solenoid that would cause the bendix to have a hard time getting power to start engaging.

So... things to check -

grounds (all of em, in engine bay and under dash)

ignition switch (you can take your car to the dealership and ask them to check yours, probably not for too much)

starter (this should be easy for a non-gearhead, that has a standard ratchet set, it's only 2 bolts and a couple nuts to hold the power wire and ground wire)

clean off your battery connections, and have your battery tested at auto zone or where-ever

if you do all of this (correctly) and still run into this problem then you probably have a fried power wire to your starter. There's no voodoo magic to cars that makes them "magically" sometimes run and sometimes not run.

I hope this helped

dunerida82

Cool thanks. Its starting again, but Ill probably get pissed again when it doesnt. It actually did the same thing today. I waited 20 minutes and started. Its a sad situation and I hate it. It runs great when the engine is actually turned on. But starting it is usually more important :lala:

JeffW

[QUOTE]Originally posted by my3rdgen
[B]I had this problem with 3 differen't cars in my life time, and it was the ignition switch in the column that was bad on one of them,
Hope this helps.

this is the item i would go after, it may be just a simple adjustment. the key cylinder has a rod that follows the top of the column to the ingnition switch. the rod pushes a slide type thing in the switch that starts the car, start is the last function on the switch so it would and could be intermitten. i would lower the colmun to make it easy to see and adjust and loose the two screws and slide it up toward the wheel a tick or a hair whichever you prefer, then check it, also check you acc setting on the key(turn key towards wheel) if it woun't go there you moved it to much. if that does not help i would go for a new switch.

jeff

trans_am_ta_84

hey, i've had some crazy stuff happy to my car, that almost made me not even want to sell it but take it to the junk yard. i've had problems with my headlights just deciding to go off on me, very scary when you're driving down the road at night and your lights go off, i've had problems with starting it, i'd have power, just wouldn't crank over, i've had problems with my windshield wipers blowing fuses, also very scary when you're driving down the road in a rain storm and you have no wipers, or sitting home on a rainy day because you don't have your windshield wipers. well i had a problem and couldn't figure out what. i had a steering column that was wobbling, badly. i bought a steering column, and suddely all the problems went away. is your steering column lose? i ca't stress this enough, for allof us tilt column guys it's a common problem with the steering column, get it fixed as soon as possible. if your column is tight, i'd get an ignition switch. my car didn't want to start, got power from the battery, but didn't crank over.. before i put in the column i was going to change the ignition switch because my father (mechanic for over 20 years) thought that was the problem, until he dropped the column to install the switch the car magically started, thats how we knew it was the column.

edit: also to help trouble shoot your problem, you can get a long screw driver, turn your key on.. and hit the one big nut to the small nut on your starter, that will jump it and if there is no delay then the switch is definitely the problem. just so you know if you try this is takes patients it's not the easiest thing in the world to do but it'll definitely figure out your problem.