2003 Malibu Won't Start

[jimdichiara]

Hi,

I hope there is somebody out there that can help me. I am a truck mechanic for 25 years. My daughter's car wouldn't start this morning. It tries to start but it is not getting gas. It runs smooth on starter fluid. I put pressure tester on fuel injector rack - it gets a steady 50 lbs while trying to start. I am assuming there is no fuel delivery problem. I don't have a scanner but a mechanic I spoke to briefly said it may not have developed a code because it won't run and he thought it could be the cam sensor, but I don't know if he is correct on either subject. I read in the Haynes Motor Manual that the crank sensor and the cam sensor control the fuel injectors but since the car runs smooth on starter fluid, does that mean that the crank sensor is ok? I really don't know. I'd hate to change the wrong part. The cam sensor is much easier to replace, I think. Also, should I try first to have a scanner put on this? Is there anybody that has come across this type of problem and could give me some information on what they think is wrong? Any thoughts would be helpful!

Thank you very much,
Jim

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[jimdichiara]

Thanks to this forum, I think I have fixed the problem, but I need to know why this is happening. I think I was encountering the famous Passlock Problem. Solution: Turned key to ON for 10 minutes until Theft Light stopped blinking. Then turned car off and back on to start and it worked. Don't know why this happened or if it may happen again, but daughter experienced a rotten egg/spoiled milk smell in the past, and another thread said that someone else had experienced this prior to the Passlock Problem. Does anyone know about this? I hope this doesn't happen again. If it does, I don't know how to solve it. Car has been good up til now.

[grettman]

Your problem sounds like the dreaded Passlock problem, a piece of crap that the Chairman of GM and the engineer who designed it should be sentenced to deal with in every aspect of their lives. Try searching on "Ponchetty" in this forum for the explanation and fix. If you can't find it (or I've misspelled his name) post back and I can explain it in excrutiating detail. Take heart, the fix isn't bad. The problem will only get worse.

Found a url: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...=454520&page=5

[grettman]

The expert on this is "Ponchonutty", not Ponchetty. Sorry.

Gary R

[73dartsport]

had the same problem with my 2ooo come to find out it would only happen when i used a poor copy of the original key.had another made from the dealership and the problem went away or at least seems to have