Have been reading many of the older posts today and found many no-start engine complaints and pleas for suggestions. What we went thru with our 2004 Impala might have happened to any car, so here is something to put in your pipe and smoke.

In the engine fuse box(not thepassenger compartment fuse box)was a large one inch square gray relay called the Crank Relay. In the manual it had a function called the Starter Crank Relay. We had very random starting issues from our car that would happen rarely, so there was no repeating the problem or making it repeat so we could diagnose the problem. Just all of a sudden the car would not start. Six months go by then it happend again. Finally, one day it happend twice.

We noticed after the car cooled down a bit it would start. Not wanting to take a chance of it failing to restart, I drove it to a dealer and kept it running, only to find out it was a Saturday and dealers in St. Louis close at noon on Saturday.

In desperation I went to a nearby AutoZone, where the clerk was very helpful. He came to look at my still running car in his parking lot and said he suspected a bad Crank Relay. What the heck was that I thought. He looked for it in his store computer and found he luckily had one in stock (he was amazed as he thought sure it would be a dealer item).

Sure enough this was our problem as far as we know, because it has been over 6 months without a problem. He said that defective relays malfunction after the engine gets hot, but on cooldown they test ok. Whatever, it seemed to have saved us major expense and inconvenience, as we were clueless. I saved the old relay just in case I needed a temporary backup. By the way, it cost around $9 as I recall.

Just an fyi to all of you that may run into the same problem someday.

 

Yes, Starter relays can fail and the vehicle will not turn over. The relay closes the circuit for the starter.