Last night while exiting a parking lot my girlfriend bottomed out her 2003 Alero pretty hard. Wasn''t just simple airdam scrape, it felt like a crossmember or something. So she shrieked a bit, then maybe a quarter mile down the road the car started acting like it was out of fuel. She quickly pulled into a parking lot as the car died. She has over a half tank of gas, but now the car won''t start. It would try for a while, but now it just cranks and cranks without even a sputter. Also now the fuel pump isn''t priming and there is no pressure in the lines.

I suspected that maybe the hard hit set of an impact sensor which kills the fuel pump, but from what I''ve dug up they don''t have one.

I''ve crawled under the car and everything seems fine, no pinched fuel lines or torn wires. I''ve also left the battery disconnected to try and reset everything, but to no avail.

Anyone have suggestions?

 

I would suspect wiring to the fuel pump. It''s not unusual for the connectors to corrode, then a hard hit like you described could break the wiring. I''d trace the lines from the ECM to the fuel pump, and unplug and check every connector.