2006 Gmc Canyon Intermittent Cranking Problems

[jason widener]

This has now occured twice.

It appears that when i crank the truck the engine turns over but either does not have fire or is starving for fuel.

I have fuel at the fuel raid when the scrader core was pressed in on the rail. the only fuel filter is not a externally servicable filter type (geniously placed in tank). 40,000 miles never have had problem before.

After about 5 to 10 minutes of trying to crank the truck, it finally starts.

not under warranty anymore, obviously. No faults picked up on by tester at Advance Auto.

Does this sound like it is the cam position sensor magnet getting dirty and not allowing proper cranking? a buddy of mine told me he has experienced this before. shouldnt be difficult to pull and observe.

But, is there anything else this could be?

Should i be very concerned and take the truck to the dealer?

[minibike132]

Honestly this is pretty impossible to answer without any concrete data whatsoever. It could be just about anything. I wouldn't even feel comfortable telling you some of the possibilities because there is really nothing to go on just from your post alone.

 

Some fuel doesn't equal enough fuel so pressure testing during the event would be a good place to start. I don't know what kind of scanner advance auto has so there could be some modules not reporting data to it, there could be codes that they cannot see.

It only happened 2x but how often? If you can't duplicate the problem it could be pretty hard to find. Sometimes doing snapshots of different operating conditions can point to a problem area but that can take a very long time and even then all we are looking for is anything that doesn't look perfect that could cause that problem. If you can't duplicate it then we could find something that doesn't look right and fix that but you could still have a problem.

 

My suggestion is to sit down and make a list of what the conditions were when the problem occoured.

 

• what was the weather condition
  
• how long since the vehicle was last run
  
• if it had been run recently how long was it run the previous time
  
• what was the length of time between previous run and this failure
  
• what did you do EXACTLY to try to start it
  
• take special note of condition of all lights and gages on the dash during normal starts, do they react the same when the no start happens
  
• pay special attention to the security lamp
  
• how long since last fuel fill
  
• what kind of fuel
  
• what did you eat for dinner
  

 

Basically every and any little thing that you can take note of can be helpful so take note of it all. Figure out the condition that matches every time and see if you can duplicate it. If you can then take it somewhere and show them how to duplicate it.

 

Good luck.

[jason widener]

I appreciate your advice.

to answer some of the questions though for info purposes

the truck is used every day and often.

weather the first time it happened and this time was about the same, no real obvious or significant weather conditions, fair i would say.

failures occured one week apart almost down to the same hour. kind of strange.

all gauges, fans, etc. were identical.

ordinary cranking procedures

i fill it up every week with gas from the Hess station. never had a problem prior.

87 octane as usual. filled up with 93 octane about 2 months ago.

i ate shrimp last night. jk

i dont know about the scanner used by Advance, but it likely didnt show cuz the system may had reset itself when i finally cranked it last time.

i have driven it four more times since this today and no problems yet. maybe i will keep going until next sunday at 2 and see if it happens again.

 

Honestly this is pretty impossible to answer without any concrete data whatsoever. It could be just about anything. I wouldn't even feel comfortable telling you some of the possibilities because there is really nothing to go on just from your post alone.

 

Some fuel doesn't equal enough fuel so pressure testing during the event would be a good place to start. I don't know what kind of scanner advance auto has so there could be some modules not reporting data to it, there could be codes that they cannot see.

It only happened 2x but how often? If you can't duplicate the problem it could be pretty hard to find. Sometimes doing snapshots of different operating conditions can point to a problem area but that can take a very long time and even then all we are looking for is anything that doesn't look perfect that could cause that problem. If you can't duplicate it then we could find something that doesn't look right and fix that but you could still have a problem.

 

My suggestion is to sit down and make a list of what the conditions were when the problem occoured.

 

• what was the weather condition
  
• how long since the vehicle was last run
  
• if it had been run recently how long was it run the previous time
  
• what was the length of time between previous run and this failure
  
• what did you do EXACTLY to try to start it
  
• take special note of condition of all lights and gages on the dash during normal starts, do they react the same when the no start happens
  
• pay special attention to the security lamp
  
• how long since last fuel fill
  
• what kind of fuel
  
• what did you eat for dinner
  

 

Basically every and any little thing that you can take note of can be helpful so take note of it all. Figure out the condition that matches every time and see if you can duplicate it. If you can then take it somewhere and show them how to duplicate it.

 

Good luck.

[minibike132]

Good but a little more specific

I appreciate your advice.

to answer some of the questions though for info purposes

the truck is used every day and often.

weather the first time it happened and this time was about the same, no real obvious or significant weather conditions, fair i would say. like here, what was the temperature.

failures occured one week apart almost down to the same hour. kind of strange. HMM probably means nothing but note what time of day was that.

all gauges, fans, etc. were identical.

ordinary cranking procedures

i fill it up every week with gas from the Hess station. never had a problem prior.

87 octane as usual. filled up with 93 octane about 2 months ago. Don't bother with the 93 it isn't doing anything for your particular vehicle just stick to the 87.

i ate shrimp last night. jk YUMMY

i dont know about the scanner used by Advance, but it likely didnt show cuz the system may had reset itself when i finally cranked it last time. No if there were a PCM code set it would not go away that fast, I was thinking it may not read every module like the BCM or other modules that can point to a problem.

i have driven it four more times since this today and no problems yet. maybe i will keep going until next sunday at 2 and see if it happens again.

 

Any way you get the point just take some careful note and try to find something that is a common denominator, that is going to help out.

 

edited for stupid grammar on my part