Hello everyone... I'm kinda bugged about something. I borrowed my music director's 2001 Accent GS to make a trip to Oklahoma from North Carolina to see my mom before she passes. Everything was great with the car until about 300 miles or so into my trip. I'll tell you exactly what happened..

Started my trip with a full tank of gas, everything was going great. I continued down I-40 and after getting into Tennessee I decided to stop for gas/food/etc. I put 5 gal in the tank, car started right up, and was back on my way. About 92 miles later, I needed to stop again and pulled into a convience store and shut the car off and went inside. About 5 minutes later, I get back into the car, and it wouldn't start. Sounds like it was about to turn over but never did. After a couple of calls and a bunch of thinking (it was like 2am and was tired) I decided to try a small bit of Starter Fluid in the breather to see if it would help it along. And to my surprise, it started right up.

Now it was quite random when this happened for the rest of my trip. Sometimes I would stop after 300 miles, and it would crank back up with no problems and other times I had to use the starter fluid.

When I turn the key, I do hear the fuel pump engage for about 3 sec. before starting, and as soon as it starts it runs fine.

Its a 2001 Accent GS 1.6 DOHC. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

CrankShaft sensor. Notorious for failing on this car, especially if it's original. I just went through this same crap a couple of months ago with my Accent. I'd almost be willing to bet that it's either crankshaft, or camshaft sensor.

You need to get someone who has an OBDII scanner and scan the car for error codes. You can rent one from Autozone for free (You pay a deposit, which you get back when you return it). This is how I found out what was wrong with mine. Many many people have had this problem. I have a thread that's almost on the bottom of page one now, which you could have looked at, but anyway, I'll post the thread link below. Welcome.

See my thread about this problem here:
https://www.hyundaiforum.com/m_12855/tm.htm

Important!! If you use an aftermarket sensor, there is a possiblity that the length may be slightly different and if you use the stock crank sensor bolt, it will not fit snugly and the car will still experience hard starting problems. I had this happen to me after I used an autozone sensor, with the factory bolt. I had to take it back to the dealer and he found the problem and put in a longer bolt to hold it in tight so the sensor can make contact with the engine. No more problems since. And since the price between aftermarket and OEM dealer part is not that much different, you should try to go with OEM hyundai sensor if at all possible. Aftermarket parts are sometimes iffy. If I had to do it over, I'd have just ordered a new sensor from the dealer instead of trying to save $10.00