Hyundai: 1996 Hyundai Elantra wont run, hyundai elantra, rear windshield


Question
My 1996 Elantra was running fine;  a few months ago, the engine started suddenly to quit intermittently, while driving, the gas pedal drew no response from the engine, then it would kick in and go for a minute, then cut out again;  it sat for a few months without running; then I had it towed to my mechanic; he replaced the fuel filter, which was old; it also got a new battery, which it needed.  It ran fine for a few weeks, then it did the same thing, this time while driving in cold rainy weather.  At my mechanic's it ran fine; we replaced the spark plug cables anyway, because we weren't sure how old they were; the plugs seemed fine.  Again, it ran fine for hundreds of miles.

Then on a long trip, in about -2 degrees F., I pulled into a rest stop; I had plenty of gas, I just wanted to stretch my legs, wash off the lights and rear windshield. While I was approaching the gas pumps at about 10 MPH, the engine suddenly quit.    I cranked and cranked the starter; it wouldn't fire at all;   after about 2 dozen tries, I started getting a loud buzzing sound, almost like a cheap alarm, whenever the key was in the “on” or “start” position.  It sounds like a starter that can't draw enough power to crank the engine, but the starter was cranking the engine just fine, and never did quit, even after a couple of hours of trying to start it every few minutes.   Again, this noise happens both while the key is turned to ignition “on”, and when it's turned all the way to “start”.  I believe the noise is not there with the key turned to "Acc".

After about ½ hour of repeated tries, then engine would sputter and try to fire; then it wouldn't fire again unless you left it alone a few minutes, then it would fire a little stronger, and this pattern repeated, but the engine could not quite “catch” and keep running.  

The check engine light is not on; the heater control knob lights fail intermittently; we had to replace the main pipe off the exhaust manifold recently because it rusted out. Those are the only other details I can think of.   My mechanic is stumped. He doesn't think it's an emissions control problem such as a sensor; the way the engine tries intermittently to fire leads him to believe it's not fuel pump; I'm not sure that makes perfect sense.

Any ideas?  Thanks for listening.  

Answer
Man, this can go both ways. It could be the engine is just not good.  But it can also be as simple as a gas flow problem.  Only thing is finding where the link is.  Reading what you have wrote it could be so many different things. It could be an electrical problem.  But it can also be a fuel injector problem too.  I don't believe it's an exhaust problem.  Because for the most part an exhaust problem will cause a car to really lose power, but not so much shut off or not start up.  You have a new battery,plug,filters. I don't believe it's the distributive cap.  Well, you have changed most of the basic parts that you should, and it's still doing it.  Don't put any more money into parts until you know exactly what's going on. That's a great way to go broke. I know.  What I suggest is, well first, is your machanic from Hyundai. If not take your car to a Hyundai dealer ship and have them hook up your car to a computer. Even if your mechanic has a computer to connect your car to his computer might not be able to see everything.  Only a Hyundai dealer can. It might cost $200 or so, but you'll know the problem.  Let me know if this sound good for you.  Wish I knew what was wrong.  If anything please contact me back and let me know whats going on. Hope it all works out for you.  Immanuel