2001 Automatic Kia Rio needs pushed before it will start...weird

walkingdead1

My mom's 2001 Kia Rio suddenly turned off while she was driving. She had it towed to her home. The car would not start. She tried starting it again and it would not start at her home. It sounded like it was not getting enough gas to turn over. I even tried it myself after I got to her home. It was snowing that night and she asked me if I could move it up her driveway into the garage. So I pushed the darn thing up her driveway in the snow into her garage to get it out of the way of the snow plow trucks. After a half hour of pushing she tried starting her car again and BAM, it started. She took it to autozone and they determined it was a bad alternator. She had it replaced and it worked fine once again plus she mentioned that her heater worked better as well.

2 days later she stopped by at my home and when she went to leave it started doing the same thing again. Every time she tried to start it it just seemed like it was not getting enough gas. I tried knocking on the gas tank with a mallet while she tried to start it. No change. Still would not start. So once again, I had to push the darn thing because she parked too far away from the curb and the snow plows were coming because it was snowing once again. So I pushed it forward and then backward so she could get closer to the curb. Then she tried to start it and BAM, it started up like a champ. So I followed her home and once there I had her try to start it again and the car started just fine. This problem seems to occur randomly.

This is a 2001 Kia Rio automatic, not manual because I am aware of the manual push start trick.

Anyone have any idea what could be wrong with this car? Fuel Pump? Pump Relay? Coil Pack? Fuel Filter? Spark Plug Wires? Something else?

stever

Sounds like a Volvo that was in my family. Had a broken/missing tooth on the flywheel. Occasionally the starter gear would line up just right and it would crank but not start. The trick with it was to scoot under with a big screwdrive and manually move the flywheel a few degrees through an access port. Or rock it or push it.

Of course, that was in 1974....

Did AutoZone try to pull any codes? If not, go back and ask them see if any are stored (most parts stores outside of California will do this for free).

And you could have gotten a bad alternator too.