| So for the last couple months or so the car has had a few quirks. When starting it, sometimes it seems to engage "hard" when the starter begins. A loud abrupt sound before it started. It's like the starter could be having trouble engaging the flywheel for a split second. Very subtle, and not on every start, but when you've owned the car for 20 years like I have you notice these things. Also every so often, I would notice the starter would engage and run for 4 or 5 seconds AFTER the engine was shut off. I ignored it for as long as I could. :-) But on Thursday, I did some searching on here and it confirmed my suspicion that those symptoms seemed to indicate that the almost 25 year old starter was finally beginning to die. But here's where it gets interesting. That evening I'm driving on the interstate at about 65mph and the car suddenly stops accelerating and starts coasting. It didn't die electrically, all the lights, radio were on and there were no dash lights on, it just quit going. After I coasted to a stop I tried to re-start it and it just turned over, but would never start. It also didn't make any odd sounds as I've described above, it just wouldn't start. But it was very close to, started for like a second or so and then died. Gas gauge showed a quarter tank. The battery is only a month old so I didn't think that was the issue and that was confirmed after I called AAA and we attempted to jump the car but it wouldn't start. I had the car towed home. I also checked the battery ground and it was good, and the cable itself is only a year old. (Also considered whether my PTU might have given up the ghost, even though I have the newer version, but when the car still didn't start the following morning after it had cooled down I now doubt that.) I tried to start it again today, and it turns over strong but won't start. I only heard the fuel pump prime for about a second or so in the ON position. Now I'm thinking it might be a fuel pump, or fuel pump relay issue and that the car isn't getting fuel. After I tried starting it a few times, the starter continued to run for about 10 seconds after the key was removed now. I'm going to replace the starter but am wondering if the faulty starter is the same problem that caused the car to die? Or if it's just a coincidence that a fuel delivery issue came up at the same time. I've done the easy stuff like looking at the fuel pump fuse and getting under the car to visually examine the starter and the underside of the engine for anything that looked suspicious or disconnected. Didn't see anything. But before I start going through all the trouble shooting steps of fuel pressure, and fuel pump relays I just wondered if anyone else had ever experienced similar symptoms when their starter was or had gone out? Thanks for your help.
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