Why Your Car Cranks And Won't Start

After you start your car, you pull out of a parking lot stall and begin to maneuver your car down the road. As you do so, you lose control over your car and it slowly stutters and stops. You try to get your car to start and it continues to crank, but won't start again. When your car won't start, this is often the result of something being wrong with the battery. However, if the car is cranking, this means that the battery is still working and the problem is likely the result of something else.  

What A Car Needs

For a car to start, it requires air, fuel, and a spark. If you are missing one of these three things, your car will simply not start or will stop running shortly after you have started it.

The Fuel Pump

When your car cranks, a common cause of a car that fails to start is a bad fuel pump. While you are able to cause sparks to fly with the ignition, the fuel pump is not delivering the fuel that is necessary to get your car started.

A Bad Fuel Gauge

Another, less frightening, cause is that you are simply out of gas. You may believe that your fuel gauge is accurate, but fuel gauges will sometimes break. Simply having your car filled with gas may cause it to continue to function properly. Then, you will need to have your fuel gauge repaired.

No Air

If the problem is not with the availability of gasoline, the problem must be with a lack of air or compression. Your catalytic converter might be clogged. This may require an expensive replacement of the catalytic converter. The timing belt or timing chain might be out of alignment. In some cases, it can be replaced. However, depending on the design of your car, this may not be possible. Worst of all is that there may be internal damage in your engine that prevents it from operating properly.

A Bad Timing Belt

The cause of your car troubles can range from a minor repair that can cost a few hundred dollars to an internal problem that may require a full engine replacement. Depending on how much your car is worth, it may make more sense to simply have your car scrapped. However, to determine this, you will want to take your car to an auto body repair shop.

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