DRN10DDL37

I have a 1997 ls400 that was running fine and suddenly just died and will not start back up. It has since the dying episode actually started a couple of times but then dies again suddenly. Now it will not start at all. It cranks over seemingly normal, sounds like it always has, but just will not catch and run like it did a day or so before. I got the car towed back to my house, then the next day I went outside and tried to start it and it started right up and was idling for about 5 minutes when I decided to kill the car. When i tried to restart it it wouldnt start back up and hasnt started since. Im thinking that when it was on the tow truck, the fuel was getting sloshed around during the drive to my house, and also the angles that the truck had to lift the car and then set it back down might have caused some debri to settle in the fuel or something like that. Any suggestions?

cobalt91

Hows the maintance history?

DRN10DDL37

Done all the maintenance myself, all reg oil changes etc,. Prob time for a timing belt but has been running just fine. The only problem I have had from the car other than this was replacing the power steering pump and the speed sensitive steering valve on the pump that was allowing power steering fluid to get into the intake. The not starting incident happened yesterday while my wife was driving it. I don't know what the initial symptoms were other than she said it wouldn't take any gas. It fired up a couple of times when I finally made it to the car, but only for a second. It turns over fine when I turn the key. I have had a check engine light on for a while but havent had any real problems from it. When it started up this morning, it ran and sounded just like it always did, and didnt make any signs of wanting to die. I just wanted to see what would happen if i killed it, and when i did, it will not start back up.

LScowboyLS

the problem is NOT likely to be debris in the fuel - there is a sock filter and another regular fuel filter keeping your fuel injectors etc. clean!

I would order an OBD-II scanner from amazon here (less than $20 to your door) and scan the codes and report them back to us here - amazon will have the scanner to you in just a couple of days, typically. - or go out and buy one at advance auto, autozone etc, you will pay a fair amount more though.

This could be a myriad of things, such as:

● ECU capacitors failing
● fuel pump resistor or fuel pump "ECU"
● crank sensor
● cam sensor
● coil failure
● cap or rotor failure
● wiring issue in one of the ones above
● jumped time
● a few other possibilities

Autozone, Advance Auto, and O'Reilly would scan the codes for free, but probably not worth risking another tow when you can just order the scanner!

DRN10DDL37

I did have a problem with the car trying to start itself with no key in the ignition. I removed the security system fuse and have been driving it since. It was something to do with the security system on the car. That was about a year ago. No other problems until now. Couldn't it be the fuel pump or the fuel filter?