Question : Crank no start - no injector pulse - no CELs

[Seth Mastro]

I have a 2001 Grand Am SE1 with the 3.4 and auto trans with 131k miles. I bought the car with a crank no start problem 2 weeks ago. I verified that it had spark and fule pressure (55-60psi) After some time cycling the key, I was able to drive the car and it ran and shifted great. Armed with the advice of a friend who is a retired GM tech, I replace the ignition module under the coil and the CNS problem seemed to have been fixed. Today the car went back to having the same CNS problem (good spark, good fule pressure) It seems that I am not getting the injectors to fire. I returned and replaced the ignition module, wouldn't start. Then I replaced the cam and 7x crank positioning sensors. The car then started and ran for about 2 min and then shut off as I turned into my drive way and will not restart. I checked the continuity of the wires between the CKS and the ICM while jiggling the wire and found no shorts. I also checked reference voltage going to the cam sensor and that looked to be within spec. Everything seems to point to a problem with the Passlock system but I do not have the "security" light glowing on my dash. While the car is running it runs perfect, I also have no check engine lights or any codes that I can pull with my cheap code reader. I'm at a loss, thanks in Advance.

[carbon]

Does the CEL come on at Key On when you have your crank-no-start events? If that CEL is not on before cranking, the ECM is not powered on and the engine will not start. The electrical issues in the last generation of the Grand Am were significant. At least it doesn't flood in this failure mode.

I had an 03 GAGT that would regularly die on the freeway or anywhere it felt like it... sometimes the BCM would not power on but the engine would start... so no gauges or A/C or windows etc... til about 3 miles down the road and the gauges would suddenly do their sweep and the HVAC fan would come on.

Other times the ECM would die, no CEL, just dead while rolling. The BCM was still awake, but you could crank the starter till the cows came home and it would never start, if you didn't have the Key On CEL. I learned to just sit for a while between turning the key on and listen for the fuel pump to prime. If that happened, then the ECM was alive. This was particularly fun on a long freeway bridge going 70MPH, I had to stop using the left lane...

I grew to hate that thing. This was all with less than 60000 miles on the clock, but I bought it used with 39k but it was 2010, so no warranty.

Then it blew the #2 exhaust rocker stud out of the head... I helicoiled it and dumped the car on a trade in while it was behaving itself. I kept that car as clean as I could, used synthetic oil.



What a piece of shit.

[TazMan]

I had the same problem in my 2003. I replaced the wires from the 7x crank sensor to the ICM and it seemed to fix it for about 3 days. I changed the ICM and it was good for another few days. When it died again I threw another ICM at it I had laying around and I got 5 minutes out of it. Same symptoms. No start, no injector pulse. Checked the ICM's in another car and they were fine so I checked the connectors to the ICM again and I had no ground on the power connector. Traced it back to a loose stud on the transmission that had a grounding block bolted to it. Once bolted down everything was ok. I'm sure you got it fixed by now but when mine died I spent so much time trying to figure it out I wanted to share my experience for anyone else possibly in the same boat.