Sometimes my car starts, sometimes it doesn’t. Will try to start it, it won’t. I’ll try it about 5 times again and it will start. Sometimes it takes me about 20 times for it to start. 1991 Chrysler New Yorker.

 

There are something like 30,000 parts in a car, probably at least 200 of them are involved in starting the engine. In a 30 year old car, it could be any one of them. A little corrosion on an electrical connection somewhere could be the problem, or a worn out part, or who knows what. You don't describe what is happening; does it crank but not fire, does it not crank at all? How old is the battery? Have you kept it tuned up? If you're looking for a magic bullet here, you're not likely to find it.

 

Car won’t start, then it will, then I’ll turn it off, then it won’t start, then it will, then it won’t for about 15 times, then it will start consecutively for about 15 times. Over and over back and forth intermittently starting. Tried diagnosing it, unfortunately I’m not too advanced at diagnosing. Alternator is new. Just changed all spark plugs and wires. Ignition coil is good. Battery is new. The engine wire harness that plugged into the ignition coil was bare so I rewired it, put a new connector and wires. Spliced a few of the wires and used a heat shrink butt connector to connect the wires. Then I heat shrinked each wire individually then wrapped them all together in electrical tape together. Changed the camshaft position sensor while I repaired the wires. Don’t know what else it could be. PCV valve is new, don’t see any leaks. The problem first started when I would stop at red lights, it would stall on me. I’d have to start it back up then it would drive and stall again. Did it for a few days until one day it wouldn’t start back up and I was blocking traffic. Got it into a parking lot, opened the hood, took out the fuel pump fuse, put it back in, and it started up. Don’t think that was the problem but I took note of that, that it could be. Just today I went and bought a fuel pressure kit. Connected the fuel pressure gauge to the fuel rail, turned the car onto accessory mode to get the pump to turn on. 0 pressure on the line. Had a friend try to start it, showed no pressure while cranking. After a couple of tries trying to start it, it eventually started and the pressure went up to 39 psi. Now I’m stuck.

 

So no fuel pressure sometimes when cranking? I think you have narrowed the problem considerably. With 0 fuel pressure, the car is not going to start.

Now look for the cause of the loss of fuel pressure. Bad wiring to the fuel pump? Failing fuel pump? Clogged fuel filter?

Start with the cheapest and easiest things first.

 

Even on the times it does start, it shows no pressure on the fuel pressure gauge. I don’t know if that’s a problem in itself.

 

Is the gauge connected properly?

 

To my understanding, yes. Used the Chrysler GM adapter to connect to the fuel rail. While cranking, it shows no pressure. When it starts, that’s when the pressure gauge goes up.

 

Check the fuel pump. See if it's getting power. If it's getting power but not creating pressure, find out why not. Not running? Clogged? If it's not getting power, trace that down. Bad wiring? Corrosion?

 

Since you mention pulling the fuel pump fuse and putting back in one time and it worked, I think this may be where your issue is. On my 95' Ranger, it was shutting down on me while driving down the highway. I would crank and crank and then finally it would start and run fine. It would do this intermittently. One day when I went to check the fuses under the hood, I noticed that a plastic plate had shifted up allowing dust to get in to the fuse box. I live in the country on a rock road so a lot had gotten in there. I then noticed that the fuel pump relay was covered in dust and therefore causing poor contacts. Once I cleared out all the dust and cleaned the contacts, the problem went away.