brucemc777

Good Afternoon!

I bought a 2002 Tracker, 2.0, automatic, for one of my daughters last nite.

This morning she drove it into work, being about a half hour of 90% highway driving, arrived, and was sitting in the parked running vehicle when the engine simply quit. Repeated attempts to restart failed.

An hour later i got there and it started without a problem.

My first suspect because of my own history is the fuel filter. I will replace that (hopefully) this evening.

As this is the first Tracker we have ever owned I am totally unfamiliar with the vehicle. I would greatly appreciate any advice and tips you folks could provide, especially:

• Do you think i am probably correct
• What else might be the issue
• Where might i find decent manuals for working on this car? (I have been able to download shop manuals on several of our other vehicles from forums such as this one, but i have yet time to study what resources are available).

Thank-you very much!!!

L84sky

If you suspect a fuel problem, install a fuel pressure gauge and drive the car until it dies. If no fuel pressure is causing a "crank, no start" condition check the fuel system components in this order: fuel pump, pressure regulator, fuel filter. An original set of used 2002 factory service manuals are nearly $300 online. If that's too much, here's a $14 option.

Irish_alley

i would think something electrical or a clogged cat.

L84sky

These are the steps for troubleshooting a "crank, no start" on a 2.0L.

L84sky

Here's how to connect the fuel pressure gauge.

brucemc777

Though I replaced the fuel filter as it was an easy possibility, the problem persists.

For what it is worth, i can now add that it never has shut down while driving so far (though i found i now also "get" to replace the Catalytic converter/manifold due to a P0420 code), only when my daughter is sitting in the car in a parking space. Once again, it would not restart on multiple attempts within minutes of the shut-down. We hope it will re-start after a little while; that has yet to be seen.

Though i did so with caution, worried not to derail from the engine shutting down situation, i included the occurrence of the P0420 in the event, to see if in the best knowledge of you folks, the two problems could be related. The P0420 came a day or two after the original engine glitch. She said when the MIL came on, any attempt to drive over 45mph resulted in very strong shaking. When she got home i read the code then cleared the computer. After clearing the code a couple days ago, the car ran great. Unfortunately, it chose to have the engine quit problem today.

I am about to go out to where she is and see if there are any other codes in the computer, will advise on any updates, but hope that the clue of the shut-downs so far only happened while the car was parked and in idle will help lead me to the least monetarily painful answer i can get to! If the next step is for me to go out and buy a fuel pressure gage, so be it; if it is the case, can you please refer me to a good one that isn't too expensive and whatever adapter i will need?

As always, THANK-YOU so very much for your knowledge and expertise. With her previous car, a Jeep, i was able to contribute and help others in that forum, but i am completely clueless with this Tracker at this point and am entirely dependent on you folks. I hope to learn enough to be able to contribute soon-

L84sky

The 2.0 has two catalytic converters. RockAuto refers to them as front and rear. The Chevy manual calls them the PUP and the conventional. In addition each converter comes in two quality levels. The lower quality is for cars that only meet the national EPA emission standards. The higher quality is required for cars that meet the California (CARB) standard. Of course the CARB compliant cats are more expensive. From what I can tell you can bolt in these in yourself. That's the good news. The bad news is catalytic converters do not wear out. They are destroyed by an engine malfunction. Catalytic Converter Failure: 3 Common Causes Please heed the warning in step 8 below. If you install new cats without fixing the engine problem the new cats will be ruined.

L84sky

Back to the "crank, no start" condition. The three basic components are air, fuel and spark. If an engine won't start it's good bet one of those three are missing. Air is hard to mess up. Spark is somewhat monitored by the computer and will possibly generate a DTC if there is a malfunction detected. But the fuel system is not really monitored at all. The computer only controls the time the injectors are open. The computer assumes the fuel pressure is correct. That means the fuel pump has to deliver enough flow and the fuel pressure regulator has to resist that flow until the operating pressure is exceeded. The Chevy troubleshooting flowchart above says check for spark first. If that's missing you can skip the fuel pressure tests but if you have spark this is what logically comes next.

The 2.0 needs this adapter to attach a fuel pressure gauge to the fuel rail and they are impossible to find.



My 2.5 liter does not use this adapter but I found a guy on the Suzuki forum who made his own.



According to him this adapter fits the Tracker's fuel rail.




To the adapter he attached a gutted a Shrader valve from NAPA



Then he needed one more connector to attach the pressure gauge. I use this $20 gauge from Harbor Freight.



This is what his completed setup looks like.


I want to repeat. My 2.5 liter does not use this adapter so I have no first-hand experience with this setup.

brucemc777

Got to love the ingenuity!
Many thanks-

L84sky

The number one cause of catalytic converter failure is engine misfires. Unburned gasoline passes through the engine and ignites in the converter. P0300 is the random misfire code. P0301, P0302, P0303 and P0304 are cylinder specific where the last digit of the code specifies the faulty cylinder.