2004 Aveo No Start, im lost....

[SpruceJedi]

I have a 2004 Aveo standard model sedan, bone stock. It has been a decent car, has about 124k on it. I changed the timing belt at 116k. I have done all the standard maintenance, I drive it approximately 50 miles a day.

A few weeks ago I drove it to work, when I was ready to go home, i hit the key and it started for about half a second and then quit. I could not get it to restart. It would fire, but then sputter and it almost sounded like it was firing out of the intake. Smells faintly of fuel. I messed with it a bit, I was able to get it to run with starting fluid, which told me it was getting spark, no fuel. After messing with it for a while, I was able to get it restarted and drove it home. I honestly did not do much but clean some contacts and jiggle some stuff around.

Here we are a few weeks later and it has done it again. Only this time it sits in my garage. Same symptoms. Sometimes I get dash gauges, sometimes not. I had some spare parts on hand. I swapped them out with no success. Swapped fuel pump, crank sensor, cam sensor, ECM... Will not start.

When I am cranking it, the starter whips it right over like the battery has a full charge, gauges work at this point. Sometimes I try to crank it and it cranks slow, no gauges. Tells me that it could be a bad connection somewhere. Any idea where the grounding straps are on these cars?

Does anyone have any ideas? I am pretty lost at this point. They only code that it gave me was a random misfire. Thanks for the help.

[camopaint0707]

you swapped out all those parts?

[avguy]

You've done enough major things that I'm guessing you also did a lot of the simpler stuff too. But anyway, here are some of the simple and easy things that come to mind to try, if you haven't already done so.
Swap relays, and check the fuse box for corrosion.
Carefully check the battery wires for deterioration (under the insulation), and also the connectors.
Pull all coil wires and check for problems and corrosion.
Have someone else crank, at night with no lights, while you look under the hood for arching.
Pull the spark plugs after cranking one time for a few seconds to see if they're wet or dry, and then check to see what the spark looks like from each of them.
Best to do only one thing at a time, and then retry after each one.

[SpruceJedi]

I did swap all those parts. Good idea on checking for spark leak.

Coil looks great, but of course that means nothing. Could look like a million bucks and not work at all. To me, it just doesnt act like weak spark, but it very well could be. I need to figure out how to check for injector pulse. My noid lights are too big to fit into the connector, might have to make something.

Does anyone know off hand the location of the main grounding strap for these vehicles? I am sure I can find it, but if someone knows real quick it might save me some time. Thanks.