Did it turn over? Did it refuse to turn over? Did it have a manual or automatic transmission? If it had a manual, was the clutch safety switch completely closed? If it had an automatic was the neutral safety switch completely closed?
First decide if it's a starter issue (no turning over) or an engine issue (no catching once it turns over).
Thanks guys for the replies. Turned over fine; battery very strong. automatic tranny.
Been using car the last two days - everything seems fine. Starts right up. Still wondering what could have gone wrong that day. Perhaps something got wet?
OK what steps were taken while trying to start it? Turned the key on and ground on the starter a while? Or turned the key on/off a few times? How many times did you try to start it and how many of those times did the key get turned fully off?
If the key was only turned on a couple times it could simply be that the check valve in the fuel system let the fuel leak down and the pump didn't have enough power cycles to prime fully.
Get it on the scanner, look at what happened when it wasn't starting. Did the computer see the engine turning? Did the computer even come on at all?
A million intermittent things can cause your problem. If the main relay is flaky, the computer won't come on. If the TDC sensor is bad, the computer won't see the engine turning. If the fuel pressure regulator is bad, or the coil is bad the computer will think everything is fine, but the engine won't start. Looking at the logs on the computer will tell you what was going on at the time.
You need fuel, air, spark, and timing, and three of those four things are controlled by the computer so the computer logs will show what was happening at the time. The logs won't stay there forever; there is a big ring buffer and they will get overwritten after a few hours of running so it may be too late to diagnose it this time but it'll happen again.
I would spray a little starter fluid down the carb and crank it. If it fires up for a few seconds the problem is in the fuel system. If it does not fire up the problem is in the ignition. (Assuming the engine is otherwise OK.)
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