Questions and Answers

Cirrus Starts Hard Q. Dear Vince, I really hope you can help me. I have a 1995 Chrysler Cirrus LXI, V-6, Auto, with 122,000 miles on it. It is having trouble starting, meaning sometimes it starts right up and sometimes you have to crank on it to get it to start. I paid money and had it "computer diagnosed".

The gentleman told me it was the fuel pump and wanted to charge me $430.00 to put this fuel pump in.

My dad and a very good friend of my dad's who is a mechanic for a Chevy dealer locally found it hard to believe it was the fuel pump. It didn't have the other symptoms and a simple test to show whether it's a fuel pump he had me do didn't work, meaning it didn't indicate it was the fuel pump. Do you have any suggestions? I don't want "ripped off" by replacing the fuel pump and that not being the problem, I don't know who to trust.

Thanks so much for your time,
Korie

A. An intermittent hard start is one of the hardest things to diagnose. If it was a constant problem it would be fairly simple to figure out since you can test things while you know the problem exists.

I guess in this case the first thing I would do is to put a fuel pressure gauge on it the night before and let the car run and build up fuel pressure. Then I would shut it off and check it the next morning. If the pressure stays up over night and still starts hard, then I would look at the coolant or air intake temp sensors. I would also look at the IACV to make sure it is working.

If it loses pressure and starts hard then I would say it's either a fuel pump or fuel pump check valve that's bad.

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