Startup problem

[BigZ1981]

**'95 LS**
Okay, I'm having issues with starting my car. When I try to start it it sounds like it's not even firing up, just cranking, so I pump my gas, but still nothing. However, if I boost it with jumper cables, and do the same thing, it starts firing up as it cranks, then actually gets going. At first, I changed my fuel pump to resolve the pulsing idle, but it still pulses after it's warmed up enough. I charged my battery, but after the first run with the car, it went back to normal. Oh, another note, if I start the car shortly after turning it off, it turns over, but if I let it sit for about 10 minutes or so, it goes back to the same thing. I'm thinking it's an electrical issue considering my clock, rear defroster, heater, and instrument gauges all went out a few days before this happened, but what and where? I am not a mechanic, but I prefer to do my own work on my car.

 

[x3dimples]

change your battery, maybe try and change your alternator. your battery is not being charged maybe. see if oyur alternator belt is still there

 

[BigZ1981]

it doesn't make the same low, slow crank from a low battery/bad alternator. Even at that, running my car at night with the lights on, my car would die in 10-15 min. I can drive my car perfectly fine after it starts up, so that's not the issue. My theory is that there's something wrong with either a relay or circuit that's disrupting other electrically-powered components in my car, which is why it's not starting properly...I just don't know where to start looking...

And thanks for the suggestion. =)

 

[Knice]

Last year mine would die on me randomly while drive. Once it dies, It would crank but won't start or turn over. Here is what I did trying to troubleshooting my issue. I replaced the "main relay" car ran for a week. Died again...no sparks at the spark plugs, replaced "ignition coil & fuel filter" ran for over a week. Died again, cranks but no start/turn over, replaced ICM. Car been running just fine since. I believe it was a combination of a bad IC & ICM from the start and not the main relay. Not sure if this will help, but just throwing it out there. Good luck. Keep us updated.

 

[BigZ1981]

I'll look into the main relay and the icm, but now I've got white smoke from my exhaust...

 

[dc2Remnant]

do you have sparking when craking over?

 

[BigZ1981]

Not at first, but as I pump the gas pedal, I hear it starting to spark. I just did some reading on my haynes manual (I left it at work and was too busy to come get it) and looked into the troubleshooting on my car starting. Come to find out that there's a relay for my fuel injection system. Considering I've been having electrical issues which started right before this issue, I can only conclude that whatever went out is the reason why my car isn't working properly. To reiterate from my previous post, I lost power to my heater, rear window defroster, clock, all my gauges, all at the same time. I'm guessing it affected my fuel injection system relay as well, which explains why I can actually get it to spark when I give it a jump. I guess it's time to dive under my dash and see what's going on.