starting problem

[warren1970]

my 1998 pontiac grand am with a 4 cylinder 5 speed will crank over but will not start, it used to start 1 out of every 12 times or so but now it just does not start at all, my friend, who is a mechanic, replaced the crank sensor and that worked for a couple of times, but now it just cranks over but does not start

[ambdukias66]

have you checked that you're getting spark to the plugs? if not check, or have your friend check, the coil pack with a multimeter. if you are getting spark and the coil checks good, it might be a fuel delivery problem. i don't know how to check for that on fuel injected cars. i'm almost strictly old school carburated non computer controlled cars. i s'pose it could be the engine computer too. do you have a check engine light on? if so, does your mechanic friend have a portable code reader? he could hook that up and it'll tell you exactly what the fault code is.
good luck
mike