Car won't start after first couple seconds turning key. Sometimes starts right up sometimes won't start at all. Strong gas smell when it doesn't start and when shuts off after driving. Intermittent for past couple months. Any ideas?

A strong odor of gasoline is sometimes caused by a failed coolant temperature sensor. If this is your problem the car will be slow to start the first time, turn it off and it will start right up.

If you have a strong gasoline smell, get that car into a mechanic ASAP. Forget fooling around trying to discover the problem yourself. Gas explodes, right? You already have a strong smell. That means that somewhere down the fuel system line there is an active leak and that is dangerous. The fact you have to post here means you don't know anything about a car, so stop messing around with a potential lethal problem. I am an old alley mechanic from wayyyyy back and am speaking from experience.

White smoke and foam in the gas tank indicates antifreeze leaking into the engine somewhere. Do you smell antifreeze? You may have an engine seal leaking, most likely head gasket. It may be affecting the various engine sensors.

You are right that it could be either component, or something else electrical. The security system will kill the fuel system if the wrong key is used or the system is acting up.
A mechanic would check base fuel pressure with a gauge and also see if the pump is getting power from the relay when it fails to start.

check the fuel relay,if its okey its your fuel pump.

If this is a sudden occurrence and nothing suspicious happened prior, you most likely lost either gas or spark to the engine. You need to check for both.

Do you hear the fuel pump in the gas tank buzz on for a couple of seconds when you turn the ignition key to ON? Unless the fuel pump turns on and puts gas under high pressure at the fuel injectors, the engine cylinders won't get gas to start. Correct fuel pressure is crucial to know if you have a fuel pump (or fuel filter) problem. If the pressure is correct, it is probably not a fuel problem but a spark problem, although there are less common instances where a fuel injector circuit may malfunction.

The ignition system not producing spark at the spark plugs is the other common problem of no starts. Buy a cheap spark tester at a parts store, plug it into one of your spark plug wires, then crank the engine over and watch for a strong blue spark. You might need a helper to do this. If you see a consistent spark, the ignition system is probably good, although you should probably check more than just one plug wire-sometimes one bad ignition coil in a coil pack will cause no starting. Good luck.

check the fuel pump, when you turn the key to the on position, the pump should start for a couple of seconds, it sounds to me like its not keeping the fuel line pressured any longer, which is why your having starting problems, when you turn the key to on, Listen for the pump to start, you will hear it hum ever so slightly,, after a couple of seconds it should stop, if it doesn't,, its losing the pressure needed, you can have them checked , its not very expensive to get them checked, having to pump the pedal,, doesn't help with this problem,, and the over heating is more than likely associated with it too,, if its not firing correctly, it will tend to over heat at times

no. I'd suggest to disconnect a battery for 15 mins, reconnect, wait for 5 mins and try to restart. If it doesn't help (sometimes there's a program block to prevent stealing equipment) call a dealer

REPLACE FUEL FILTER AND AIR FILTER,CLEAN FUEL INJECTORS SEE IF THAT HELPS.

take your car in jay ganesh car showroom and sarvis your car