Waiting a Few Hours Before Going Anywhere

You should never touch the throttle while starting a fuel injected car. You can't flood one either.

Any trouble codes?

Have you looked under the hood at the engine? Any fuel leaks?

It's very difficult to troubleshoot cars for a non-mechanical person.

Maybe take it to a shop.

Sounds like it could be vapor lock. If the fuel line is too close to the exhaust, the fuel can vaporize in the line. There may be a thermal shield that is missing.

Fuel injected vehicles don't vapor lock.

Fuel lines are under 40-50PSI pressure with FI systems.

Vapor lock occurred when fuel pumps sucked gas out of the tank and the gas was under negative pressure.

FI systems pump gas out under pressure. Fuel pumps are in the tank.

Yep! that's the one.

Had the very same on a Nissan sedan here.

A fault in a new part, no less.

GA, I think that's where I'd start too. And maybe start looking around here, I know this has been covered many times before about Cavaliers Just ask Lynn

Oh yeah, If you crank the engine over for a continuous 5 minutes, non stop and the engine not firing, you will dump raw fuel into the exhaust system, FI or carbureted and smell gas coming out the tail pipe.

It could be true on some engines still, but most modern German engines (the few I have worked on) stop injecting after a few seconds if the engine is not running.

The easiest way to test this (be wary of fire, do it outside with a fire extinguisher handy and full insurance!!) that I personally know of is to completely stop any sparks being generated when trying to start the engine (no cigarettes either!).

Then remove the complete fuel injection rail from the engine (but still [re-]connected to everything) and aim it at a large cloth or individual empty tin cans for each injector, then try and start the engine.

After a couple of "squirts" from each injector or so, they should stop, even though you continue to crank it over....

This means that the engine "knows" that it is not running and is attempting to save the cat from fuel damage.....

If you are at all unsure, do not try this out.....fire hazard.

This may still have something to do with whether the engine starts hot.....so do it warm.....you have a window of a few hours I believe....the injectors may be blocked electronically.

Worn out/damaged plugs can also make warm starting difficult....

Do you have the same problem when you run the engine and then shut it off before things have had time to warm up?

Your car is 14+ years old.....scrap it and get a newer one....

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/

A similar problem on my 1991 Geo, a single injector TBI setup, was caused by a bad O ring sealing the injector. A slight leak let the car run OK, but flooded when shut off.

Well put.

Such problems can also "kill" the catalytic converter due to possible raw fuel getting in there, which is what is happening if you can smell fuel at the exhaust.

It sounds as though this car has not had the TLC that such cars need to run well for long periods.....

You should not smell gasoline in a modern fuel-injected car. Find that leak. If the tailpipe smells like raw fuel, check for a leaking/bad injector. Reviewing the literature a bit, and considering the age of the car, I'd remove, clean and lightly WD40 all the fuses, clean the grounds for relay blocks, and totally distrust the wires themselves. There are little sequences on what powers the fuel pump, etc. during initial start and run. The indications you give point to a fuel pump ground connection. Does it turn on when it won't start? It goes whirrrr.

This is what we had with steam powered cars. Start a fire, wait a while and get going. Storms were always a problem. If your wife was in labor, forget the car.

Grab the towels, boil water on the stove and hope for the best. Today, we are spoiled. Get in the car, push a button and Varroom. When Varoom doesn't happen there are a million things to consider today. Back in as early as 1984 I was still pulling engines, trannys and rear ends. Since 1987 I gave up pulling motors and trannys. Way too much technology in the newer cars and the unibody is insane to change. Give me back the 1950/60 full framed cars and body panels I can work with. Today is all plastic. Try welding that back together! Or even zeroing the bump to be level, straight and true...

Internet auction sites (names withheld) are ideal for solving problems like this. Simply list the vehicle, and in a few days, someone shows up with some money, exchanges it for the vehicle, and takes the problem away.

Hi, This is one of those faults that are so hard to find, In the past when I've come across one of these intermittent faults, I've found the best thing is to force the problem & keep forcing it until it breaks down then you can start a systematic search for the fault, It will probably turn out to be an electrical connection that heats up and breaks contact but whatever it turns out to be is going to be a pig to find.

Bazzer.