asechrest
En-Route
Requisite background info:
The car: My significant other's 2005 Chevy Malibu V6. 130k miles. She has not kept up with maintenance, and I haven't done a good job of helping her do so.
Me: Very inexperienced working on cars, but trying/willing to learn. I have a floor jack (Costco sells a great one for less than $100) and a nice set of regular tools. The most I've done on my own car (2003 Corolla) is oil changes, tire rotations, break pad replacement (still working up the guts to do the rear drum brakes), and installing new front struts.
The issue: The car frequently has trouble starting; once a day at least. I believe the classic term for the issue is "hard start." It's not a battery issue (recently replaced) and the engine turns over fine. It just has difficulty "catching." Pumping the pedal while cranking seems to help, but it's possible I'm tricking myself into thinking so. The engine will always start after cranking a bunch of times. Occasionally, the engine will die right after starting. Giving it gas after starting seems to prevent it from dying. If you let it die, it always starts right back up again. It never dies during regular use.
So...I know a bunch of you are real sharp with engines, and it's decidedly not my forte. Anyone care to come up with some ideas, and perhaps an order in which I should try them? As I mentioned at the top, we've not kept up with maintenance, so I'm fully prepared to hear "change the damn original spark plugs" from a bunch of you.
The car: My significant other's 2005 Chevy Malibu V6. 130k miles. She has not kept up with maintenance, and I haven't done a good job of helping her do so.
Me: Very inexperienced working on cars, but trying/willing to learn. I have a floor jack (Costco sells a great one for less than $100) and a nice set of regular tools. The most I've done on my own car (2003 Corolla) is oil changes, tire rotations, break pad replacement (still working up the guts to do the rear drum brakes), and installing new front struts.
The issue: The car frequently has trouble starting; once a day at least. I believe the classic term for the issue is "hard start." It's not a battery issue (recently replaced) and the engine turns over fine. It just has difficulty "catching." Pumping the pedal while cranking seems to help, but it's possible I'm tricking myself into thinking so. The engine will always start after cranking a bunch of times. Occasionally, the engine will die right after starting. Giving it gas after starting seems to prevent it from dying. If you let it die, it always starts right back up again. It never dies during regular use.
So...I know a bunch of you are real sharp with engines, and it's decidedly not my forte. Anyone care to come up with some ideas, and perhaps an order in which I should try them? As I mentioned at the top, we've not kept up with maintenance, so I'm fully prepared to hear "change the damn original spark plugs" from a bunch of you.