Yesterday, I drove my V90 down to the grocery store to buy a few incidentals -- it ran just fine, same as it always does. Went to start the car after returning from the store and zip. Nothing.

Well, not entirely nothing. At first, it acted like it wanted to start. It caught for a second, then shuddered and died. The first couple of times I tried to start it, it did the same. Then it would no longer catch for a second. And when I left the starter crank for more than a couple of seconds, suddenly the engine would begin to shudder rather severely. I've never run across this before. Images of bending valves began to dance through my head, since the car's just now ticked over the mileage point where it's time for a new timing belt (70,000 mile interval). After several more attempts to start the car, where it would shudder strongly after a couple seconds of cranking, this symptom stopped. The engine cranked in a more or less normal fashion. But just wouldn't start.

So today, I removed the timing belt cover, expecting to see the alignment marks askew, but fortunately all three are still properly aligned. And the belt is still in excellent condition. So, I breathed a big sigh of relief over that, at least.

So, what else are some likely areas to look? I haven't checked for spark yet. I'm not gonna blow a coil pack or anything checking for spark am I? What about the crank sensor (I assume this car has one)? Any way to check to see if this is the problem? Fuel pump, maybe? Any other possibilities?

I'm really curious why it vibrated so severely when trying to start it, only to have it just disappear. Any ideas what might have caused that?

Any help you can provide will be most appreciated. I'm hoping I can fix this myself. Else I'm looking at having it towed to the shop and pay those guys like $95 an hour. Plus parts.