General Maintenance & Repairs - 01 trans am cranks but wont turn over

so it all started wed... im about 50 miles from home and i go to start my car and bam, crank crank crank. i try a couple more times, the car finally turns over on about the 5th or 6th try. i drive back to by my house, turn it off, come back a couple hours later, and it starts up fine. go to a friends house to go start it to drive home and it wont start. i try about 5 or 6 times, then i just let it roll down the hill and i popped the clutch a couple of times and started it that way.

so i bring it home and today i wanted to recharge the AC system. i went to go start it to make sure the compressor kicks on, but that didnt matter because i couldnt get the car to start. i tried to start probably about 8-10 times. no luck.

it idles and drives fine. which makes me think its not anything fuel related.
however i could pop the clutch to start it, which makes me think its not power related. of course it could be im just trying to trouble shoot.

i also unhooked my amplifier to see if having less amps drawn to anything other than starting the car would help (which it didnt)

anyways have you guys had any similar problems or have any possible fixes?

Check your starter, it could be going bad. I have the same issue on initial start ups from time to time but I think mine is o2 related.

a friend of mine suggested the starter, however i disagreed because my old car (98 grand prix gt) had a starter go out and with that it wouldnt crank at all, it would just do one click and all the lights would go out. then the lights would come back on when i turned the key back to the on position vs the start position. i suppose its worth a shot tho ill do the ol hammer trick and see if it helps at all. ill give you guys a update probably tomorrow

Sounds like the fuel pump may be getting weak. Check your fuel pressure at the rail with a fuel pressure gauge. Hook up the gauge and turn the key on. You should see 55-58psi. If that checks out then crank it and see where its reading then. Should be 58psi.

Pumps can get weak over time and may take awhile to prime causing long starts. After you've driven some and kill the car for a short time it may still be primed enough to start fine but, after a prolonged time of sitting later it's lost prime again causing longer starts.

Ok stop everything. Go pull the ignition relay and switch it with another relay. If thats not it you can slap me!!!

Ok stop everything. Go pull the ignition relay and switch it with another relay. If thats not it you can slap me!!!

Did this work? I am having a similar problem...

I'm having same problem. Where is the ignition relay?

Should be under the hood in the fuse box. I've had them go out before, but sounds more like a pump issue.

confused..........you did get it to start????? you said "it idles and drives fine"........

you can try locking the car from the remote, open the door with the key, and then try to start it. When my bird decided to kill itself on me, that trick worked. I drove it about 230 miles the day before without a problem and then it wouldn't start the next day. Did what I just said and it started up

Mine starts on 5th or 6th try. Will try to get new ignition relay. I thought it was weak battery and bought a new one but that didn't help. After the car starts it drives fine so I don't think it's the fuel pump.

Changed ignition relay. Car starts ok. Easy cheap fix.

Thank you