Q: My car has had trouble starting for the past 3 months. It cranks but it doesn't turn over in the morning.

asked by on February 07, 2018

My car has had trouble starting for the past 3 months. It cranks but it doesn't turn over in the morning. After about 10 minutes, it eventually starts and is fine the rest of the day. The past month, it has been a stalling at red lights and in traffic (while still having a hard time starting in the morning). I turn off my car and turn it back on and it runs fine. I have taken it to multiple mechanics and the dealership a few times but they cannot diagnose the problem!

My car has 84000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

Fuel Pressure Regulator Replacement $126.81 - $1011.90 Get a Quote

There are a number of things that may cause this to happen, however based on what you are describing it sounds like you may have an issue related to maintaining the proper fuel pressure both while starting and sitting at red lights. The fuel pressure regulator is a device which controls the pressure of fuel supplied to the fuel injectors on an engine. This works by bleeding off a portion of the fuel flow to the injectors from the fuel pump to control the fuel pressure. Fuel is pumped from the fuel tank to the fuel rail by the fuel pump. The fuel pressure regulator is normally mounted after the fuel rail to ensure that the fuel rail has priority in fuel flow. The valve in the regulator controls the amount of fuel that is bled from the fuel rail by opening an outlet port to allow fuel to flow back into the fuel tank. All injectors need a pressure difference between the inlet and the outlet of the injector to spray fuel into the combustion chamber. This is called the base pressure. If this is not happening correctly, you will experience intermittent fluctuations in starting and maintaining the engine running as you have described. I would suggest having a professional from YourMechanic come to your location to diagnose and inspect your vehicle.

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