I have a 2007 Chevy Suburban with 175,000 miles on it. I'm experiencing intermittent hard starting. After two or three tries it usually cranks up. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to when this happens. It's not always first thing in the morning, and it's not right after I fill up with gas.

There seems to also be a related issue of an evap system leak code that gets thrown, and the hard starting and evap code seem to happen around the same times. I've replaced all the evap parts and the intermittent hard starting continues, and eventually the evap code gets thrown again.

I've thought it might be a fuel pump going bad, but would think if that was the case there would be some kind of pattern with the hard starting happening on a cold start after it's been sitting all night or something. Have also wondered if a leaky fuel injector could be the issue. I did have one spark plug that was very fouled and causing a misfire. I changed it out, the misfires stopped, but the intermittent hard starting has continued.

Any ideas?

 

does it start if you spray starting fluid into it?

 

I haven't tried that. I never know when this hard starting issue is going to happen. Usually it cranks fine. But a few times a week I'll have the hard starting issue. Usually ends up cranking on second or third try.

 

measure the fuel pressure