my wagon wont start and its costing me money

[jaz82]

so basically ive spent a lot of money on my commodore wagon and now its completely failed on me that I have to send it to holden to do a diagnostics as my mechanic cant find the problem. its been serviced regularly had new spark plugs, etc. it was shuddering last week and every time I was putting petrol in to fill it up it wouldn't start first go, I would have to put my foot on the accelerator a bit to get it going. got sick of that problem so mechanic came out put in new fuel pump on Saturday arvo. car ran well and we chucked fuel in it and didn't choke on first start. yesterday coming back from the gold coast doing 110km/hr all of a sudden lost all power, steering went stiff,brakes and speed went down until it just stopped. towed it home got mechanic out again, changed fuel pump again even though this was a new one so second fuel pump still not starting. hooked up electronic machine and comes up all good so not electronic. alternators perfect,starter motors great, fuel pump is spinning and pumping like it should. hoses look good. seriously annoying that we cant fix the problem and he said couldn't be fuel line cause hes never had to fix one of those in his life but could it be? does anyone know what could be the problem because I want to keep this car and its only done 169000kms its ran so well and is healthy until now. we turn the key and it wants to kick in but just makes the noise of not starting. any help greatly appreciated
also sprayed that start ya bastard down it and still didn't work

 

[dgp]

Has it got spark when your cranking it?

 

[jaz82]

Hi yes it does spark plugs are brand new and it cranks but not enough. At Holden now doing diagnostics check hopefully someone finds the problem or if any of the people on here have an idea please post as any advice or info helps. Cheers

 

[r2160]

The 3.8 v6 (assuming that is what you have) had problems with the crank angle sensor.
I had the same symptoms that you are describing in my commodore and that is what the problem was.

 

[sleepa]

Are you sure the charging system and battery is good? Might be worth giving them a test, they can cause all sorts of stupid issues.

 

[kiwicon]

CAS would be when warm more than cold.. heat screws them.. pour cold water over it when hot and it should start..

 

[jaz82]

so holden called me and said everythings clean on it and theres a lot of new parts but they want to do a compression test and pull apart the inlet manifold. I really don't want to be told my engines screwed as ive spent a few grand on this car. crank angle sensors fine we ran that the other day even holden are baffled at this car.

 

[Benboy]

Tell them - NO FIX - NO PAY !!:yahoo:

 

[r2160]

My crank angle sensor had an intermittent fault. I would be driving normally for s good period, then it would stop working. I would wait a bit then it would be ok. It was a known issue by Holden.

 

[jaz82]

So no compression needed another technician came in played with the battery and it started, bam. He said it was the battery but my local mechanics saying nah that doesn't add up. Anyway picking it up tmrw bringing it home gong to put a new battery in it even though this ones only a year old and see how she runs. They said cranking it all the time caused it to flood and battery sucked dry but still doesn't explain why it cut out but then again could've been a faulty battery. Diagnostics test came back good saying everything's working well checking alternator charge rate tomoz before pickup and go from there. Cross fingers