QuestionMy 2005 Elantra started this am and ran rough for a few seconds before smoothing out. Back out of the driveway and it died in the street. It has 48,000 miles and it is a automatic. I let it sit for a few hours and tried again will no luck. It turned over fine but would not fire.
Had to have it towed to the dealer, they said the car is fine nothing was wrong with it. This happened before when the wife had it and when I got to her work it started for me. Do you know of any issues like this?
I am going to pick it up tomorrow and I am not happy about paying $80.00 for a car that will act up again. Thanks.
AnswerSometimes, crank sensors have intermittent failures like this. But it could also be a poor electrical contact just about anywhere.
As for the $80, press the dealer for exactly what you got for that money. In my personal opinion, if you take in a car for which the complaint is as you told me and it starts and runs normally, there's no reason to do $80 worth of diagnosis unless evidence of the cause of the problem is found. Based on your description, I'd be likely to read the engine and transmission codes, and if nothing was found, let the vehicle run awhile to see if the problem would reoccur. If, on the other hand, a relevant diagnostic trouble code was found, I'd make an educated guess as to the problem.
Unfortunately, without being able to duplicate the condition and without a diagnostic trouble code to hint at the nature of the cause, there are many possibilities and the vehicle will be pretty much impossible to diagnose.
