Archives

Hi guys,

Today when mom was coming back from work this evening, Malibu will not start. :( I went there to see what's going on after the attempt to jump start the car failed. In the SG2, the battery vlts are about 12.5 and upward. When turn the ignition, the car would sound like it would start but nothing happens. I am not sure if this would be an alternator problem or not.

When I scan for the codes, I found two codes. Here are the codes and the description of them.

P0443 Evaporative Emission Control System Purge Control Valve Circuit
P0449 Evaporative Emission Control System Vent Valve/Solenoid Circuit Malfunction

I am not sure what they mean. I have left the car in the parking lot and will try to start it again tomorrow. The description, I found them from Scan Gauge website. I am sure if it will start tomorrow or not. I might have to have it towed to dealership or some other mechanic.

I would appreciate if anyone who know what the codes mean and is there anything I can do about it. (my uncle told me to drain some of the fuel from the lines as there might be some dust or junk in the line)

Thanks in advance, Guys.

Those codes are for the emission control system and would not prevent the car from starting. You most likely have a failing purge/vent valve or some sort of leak/restriction in the lines to/from it.

For your starting problem, however.....

You say the sg shows 12.5+ volts so you have battery power. The alternator only supplies power to the vehicle through the battery and does not affect starting.

Do you have gas? When you first turn the key listen carefully from the rear of the car you should hear the fuel pump turn on for a second or two - if not check the fuses to the pump - actually, just check every fuse that you can see - they are not always labeled with everything they supply power to. If you can't hear the pump and the fuses are good you may have a bad pump.

Check those few things and let us know what you find.

when you say it sounds like the car is going to start, are you saying that it is cranking? If that's the case then as Scott says, it is a fuel issue, could be the pump or an electrical issue.

Checking all your fuses is what I would recommend, There is an "engine" fuse that would cause the issue you're experiencing.

If it's not cranking, make sure your battery is connected properly. It might be reading 12 volts, but a bad connection will prevent the necessary amt of amps needed to the starter.

Thanks Scott. I am planning on taking a gas container of two gallons and fill it up. I am sure that I have enough fuel in the tank, because the gauge is showing a bit less than half the tank full. I will see how it works out and also I will take out all the fuses and put it back. Ma be that will fix things up. :)

Thanks Ric,

I disconnected the battery and reconnected it again and its the same thing over. Besides, the battery is brand new. I just bought Duralast Gold in the beginning of February. I am hoping that its just a fuel being low and not something more costly.

Thanks Ric,

I disconnected the battery and reconnected it again and its the same thing over. Besides, the battery is brand new. I just bought Duralast Gold in the beginning of February. I am hoping that its just a fuel being low and not something more costly.

Always remember that NEW doesn't mean good. I routinely get 'new' parts in the box that are bad, broken or don't fit right.

jusbringit has a good point- make sure that the battery connections are clean and secure, good voltage doesn't equal good amps.

Don't add too much fuel - check the fuses first and listen carefully for the pump. I can't tell you how much fun it isn't to replace a fuel pump in a completely full tank

You always need 3 things for an engine to run air - fuel - spark make sure you have those and you will have eliminated most of the easy things.

Have you checked to see if it's getting fire to the plugs or not? It takes 3 things to make a car run fuel, fire and compression. I don't know much about Chevy's. Does this car have a timing belt or timing chain? If it's got a timing chain you probably don't have to worry about that being the problem, but if it's a belt it could very easily have broken or sheared off some teeth. If it's not firing it could be the crankshaft position sensor gone bad, a bad coil, and I would imagine it has some type of ignition module that could have gone bad. I could be much more help if it were a Ford. If it's firing listen for the fuel pump to kick on and make a humming noise for about 1-2 seconds when you turn the key to the on position before trying to start the car. If you don't hear the humming check the fuses and the inertia switch to make sure it hasn't got tripped and there is probably a fuel pump relay somewhere that could possibly have gone bad, but not likely. Most likely canidate if you don't hear the fuel pump is the fuel pump itself gone bad and as you probably already know it's located inside the fuel tank. Again I don't know about Chevy's, but on most of the later model Ford's you can remove the bottom of the rear seat and there is access to the fuel pump there, if not it means having to drop the tank, replace the fuel pump and put the tank back in place. NOT a fun job.

Is the battery voltage reading of 12.5 when you are cranking the engine or at rest. Confirm this by measuring the battery voltage while cranking. Modern cars will crank with low battery voltage, but the electronic systems will not work unless the cranking voltage is above 10 volts.

Very rare for fuel pumps to go out, very common for a replacement part to be defective.

If you have a battery charger, one of the best ways I have seen to test a battery is to just turn the headlights on. We used to do a quick load test and it would show good, but the customer would come back the next day and tell me the battery was dead the next morning and needed to be jumped.

The headlights would kill the battery in 20 minutes. A new (good battery) will hold up for two hours of headlights on and still crank the car.

How do I know that, by leaving mine on while playing 9 holes of golf, after 18 it was completely dead.

regards
gary

I believe the engine has three coil packs, and I don't think all three would fail so suddenly. It has a timing chain, not a belt, and broken chains in these engines will be a very rare event.

Check the fuse for the fuel pump and fuel pump relay.

Another "seen it before" issue for these cars is a bad ignition cylinder. They had an offbeat security system built into the PCM and the ignition switch/cylinder needs to tell the computer that it's ok to energize the coils. If this is the issue, it is probably a good idea to have a dealer (or someone who can flash the PCM) do the replacement because you have to tell the car that the installed switch is now part of the car and its unique code is correct for the vehicle and its ok to start.

That being said, many people swap the ignition cylinder only to find out they had a problem with the fuel pump or crank position sensor or other simple fuel/spark killer.

If you are getting *circuit* codes, that often means that the
reading coming back from a sensor is either open or shorted,
i.e. nowhere near its usual range. This could indicate that
something's simply disconnected. If said sensors are back near
the fuel tank, as they may be, then they wouldn't affect startup
but if they're part of a connector that also carries, say, the
fuel pump lead and *it* is disconnected somehow then that would
make for a bad day. So as said before, try to check for the
fuel pump running. You may need to get a buddy to listen under
the tank; the pump will likely run for a short burst when you
go to KOEO [ignition, engine not started yet] and that's easier
to listen for than more running over the noise of the engine
being cranked.
.
_H*

Another "seen it before" issue for these cars is a bad ignition cylinder. They had an offbeat security system built into the PCM and the ignition switch/cylinder needs to tell the computer that it's ok to energize the coils. If this is the issue, it is probably a good idea to have a dealer (or someone who can flash the PCM) do the replacement because you have to tell the car that the installed switch is now part of the car and its unique code is correct for the vehicle and its ok to start.

That being said, many people swap the ignition cylinder only to find out they had a problem with the fuel pump or crank position sensor or other simple fuel/spark killer.

I actually had an issue with the ignition about 2 years back. The key just would not get out of the ignition. The car would start but I could not turn it off. :mad: Thankfully, I had the extended warranty at the time, so I just took the car to dealer and it was fixed at not cost to me. I really can't recall exactly but I think it was about cylinder and a retention clip of some kind.

Well, I had the car towed to my home and my uncle will come over tonight or tomorrow morning and will try to replace spark plugs and also check out the fuel lines or such. I hope its something simple that can be taken care of at home.

The car finally started. We replaced 3 spark plugs, in the hopes that the car would start. The old plugs were really bad looking and looked that they were the problem. While replacing one of the plugs, we snatched the cable. So I went back to Autozone and got the cables. The car still would not start, even after replacing the cable.

Then, on Sunday, my dad and uncle replaced the fuel filter, during the day. When I came back from home, the car was up and running. I saw the old fuel filter and the muddy looking fuel. Wow!!! No wonder the car would not start.


I wanna thanks all of you guys for all the help and the replies. :)

Interesting. On my car, the manual says the fuel filter is a lifetime part. I guess I'll replace it at 40k miles like the VW gear heads do.

The car finally started. We replaced 3 spark plugs, in the hopes that the car would start. The old plugs were really bad looking and looked that they were the problem. While replacing one of the plugs, we snatched the cable. So I went back to Autozone and got the cables. The car still would not start, even after replacing the cable.

Then, on Sunday, my dad and uncle replaced the fuel filter, during the day. When I came back from home, the car was up and running. I saw the old fuel filter and the muddy looking fuel. Wow!!! No wonder the car would not start.


I wanna thanks all of you guys for all the help and the replies. :)

Glad to hear you got the car up and running. Don't forget to replace the other 3 plugs.

It sounds like you got a bad tank of fuel - find out where the last tank was from and avoid that station like the plague!

I just got through a tank of e10 that was contaminated with extra ethanol and water up to 18%, the blazer ran like garbage and I lost 3mpg for that tank!

You might also consider the possibility that there is more bad fuel in the tank, and it will keep accumulating in the new fuel filter.

I used to blow the old filter out into a container to see if there was a lot of garbage in the filter, so my customer could avoid getting stranded soon after leaving my shop.

regards
gary

glad you're up and running. Like Scott mentioned, don't forget to change the other 3!

glad you're up and running. Like Scott mentioned, don't forget to change the other 3!

That's the problem we ran into Saturday night. Because its V6 the other 3 plugs are on the other side of the engine block and they are on the inside side. So they are kinda hard to get at and because I have never replaced the older plugs, the insulating cables are hard to pull out. :( May be I will have to take it to a shop to have it replaced.

That's the problem we ran into Saturday night. Because its V6 the other 3 plugs are on the other side of the engine block and they are on the inside side. So they are kinda hard to get at and because I have never replaced the older plugs, the insulating cables are hard to pull out. :( May be I will have to take it to a shop to have it replaced.

I actually replace those "inside" plugs from underneath. If you have a GOOD set of jack stands, are real careful and don't mind crawling around under the car, it is usually pretty easy from below to get to them. Otherwise your best bet is your local service center, shouldn't be too much of a labor charge for 3 plugs.

You might also consider the possibility that there is more bad fuel in the tank, and it will keep accumulating in the new fuel filter.

I used to blow the old filter out into a container to see if there was a lot of garbage in the filter, so my customer could avoid getting stranded soon after leaving my shop.

regards
gary

+1

You also might want to track down your receipt from your last fill, because if your new filter clogs too, you might be able make a claim against that station's insurance to get your fuel tank dropped and cleaned.