Clough:
Usually every no start situation is approched with:
Is there air, fuel and spark?
Spark is usually tested with a known good plug held against the block. You look for a spark when cranking. The spark will be less intense than it would be in the engine.
Fuel can be tested initially by looking to see if the plug is wet after contnued cranking. The fuel pressure rail is at about 80 PSI.
Air usually means checking the air cleaner filter.
Disconnecting the battery will erase codes, so it's best to find tyhem before the battery is depleated.
With the event of the newer vehicles and all the instrumantation and the necessity to inspect vehicles for emmissions, the OBD standard and connector system was introduced.
Initially the diagnostic connector was propreitary and then they bacame relatively universal. Newer cars will use somthing called the CAN bus. This bus structure is appealing because of the multiple systems involved such as ABS etc. Each one can have there own computer associated with each system.
I'd also have to ask if you recently filled the car with gas. We had a situation here where many vehicles were affected by water in the gas and they pretty much stopped dead in the station sometimes.
Here is a sample of some OBD codes:
OBD II Generic codes
Some ideas could be crankshaft position sensor and fuel rail pressure low.
Autozone will scan your vehicle for free. They may, rent the tool. Each tool comes with levels of sophistication. Some may just give codes and others will give suggested malfunctions.
I suspect you should be able to rent a tool.
It's a whole different world out there. Cars are becoming more reliable and need less maintenance. I don't own a scan tool yet, but have used Autozone's free service for my mom's car for a defective MAF sensor and fuel filler gasket. I could have used it twice for my vehicle.
Linear Mode
