I can't believe this!

[DAVZKAR]

ad I stopped for gas after work. Down to three bars filled up and left. Twenty minutes later car is running like crap. No service engine lights or anything . Idle is a little rough if you give it gas it may stumble and has no power but keeps on running. This close to Carlise too . My 96 vette is suppose to go to the body man to fix bumper boo-boo, and now this. If the tank has to be dropped and drained I think I will really be ****ed off. I even have my sticker to park with the rest of the ZR-1's at carlise. I hope I can get it straightened out by then. ad

 

[WNH]

The 1st guess-- maybe a bad tank of gas, change the fuel filter.

 

[DAVZKAR]

Will a fuel filter keep water? Trapped inside the fllter itself. I just replaced it at the end of June. Did a fuel pressure test. Gauge was at 40Lbs. at idle. Give it alittle gas and it dropped to about 38Lbs.

 

[Moonunit 451]

It could be a coincidence and you have another problem. If you are really convinced it's the gas why not cyphon it out. You should be able to get ALL of it if you park it with the nose slightly elevated.

Also you can see down into the tank quite easily if you pull the fuel pump, which is not much of a job, and determine if there is water or other impurities in there.
What about your cats?

That's a bummer, hope you get it all squared away in time

 

[milehigreg]

According to C4C5 Specialist at the Cruisefest Tech session - Fuel filters do indeed become waterlogged.

 

[Toms007]

According to C4C5 Specialist at the Cruisefest Tech session - Fuel filters do indeed become waterlogged.

Yea, C4C5 Specialist recommended changing the fuel filter every 10k I think. Hi Greg!

 

[CLABORN1960]

A bottle of dry gas won't work?

 

[John Robinson]

Bad Gas

Put in 2 or 3 bottles of dry gas in the tank and then drive until you can put at least 10 gallons of gas (from another station) in it. It may run ragged for a while but keep driving it until you can then do a 2nd fill up. Keep adding the dry gas for at least two tanks have gone through engine. If the gas is bad the car will gulp it up to keep running and your milage may drop down to no better than 10 mpg. Thats a good thing since you will be getting the gas out faster. I had a friend who had his wife follow him to the station to fill up both his cars and when they pulled away they did not go 1 block before both engines seized up. The station rebuilt both engines. That however is the worse case scenario since you are still running you will be able to burn the bad fuel out. Good luck and let us know if this is the cure or not.

 

[DAVZKAR]

Ran it down till it actually said low. Filled tank up and added some Red-Line fuel injection cleaner. Drove home about 70 miles car is still running like a terd. I pulled several plugs and some are darker than others. The injectors will probably have to be cleaned .Some particles may be stuck in the injectors.

 

[Chris Kennedy]

Try banging on the catalytic convertor, and if it sounds like something is rattling around in there that probably means the catalyst has fallen apart. That can happen suddenly, and it may be the source of the problem. Also, check to see if you have a cracked spark plug or spark plug wire which is arcing over to the block---you can best see this with the car in the dark. Finally, check rotor and distributor cap (often small problems here really affect running).


/s/ Chris Kennedy

 

[DAVZKAR]

Took the car to a local Chevy dealer to have fuel injection service done and pump out the tank and new filter. Picked the car up and it still runs like a terd. So when I got home I got out the service manual and got under the hood. Started pulling plugs ,#2 and #3 are fowled. And guess what ,they are fired by the same coil. It just happened to take a dump after the fill up. So I will be installing 4 new coils . I figure if I have to pull the plenum I might as well change the others too. Car has 66K now the others might not be far behind.

 

[John Robinson]

Talk to dealer

The dealer should have run a diagnostic on the whole system. I would talk to him about why they returned a car that was still not running right. In fact I would demand a financial compensation for the work they did do that was of no value. In my opinion the dealer did a half a-- job for you. A sun machine would have shown the fouled plugs and bad coil without taking anything apart. Then they could have fixed them before pumping the tank etc. They are parts changers and as long as you will come back and your money holds out they will throw parts at the problem without knowing what it is. Thats not why you went to the dealer. You had a resonible expectation that the dealer would know the product they sell well enough to do a diagnostic and would fix what was wrong the first time.:bash :bang

 

[milehigreg]

John's right. This is exactly what I thought when I read your last post. Except - Did the dealer troubleshoot or did they just do what you told them to?

 

[John Robinson]

John's right. This is exactly what I thought when I read your last post. Except - Did the dealer troubleshoot or did they just do what you told them to?

Yes there is the issue of what you told them but since the car was not running well when you took it to them they should have made sure the repairs fixed the problem. If not they should then have determined what was wrong and contacted you for a clearance to repair what they found was wrong. Obviously they did not. No matter how you cut it they were remiss in how they did there job

 

[vette-dude]

Maybe the moderator should combine the two threads on this topic. Thanks.


http://corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73238

Randy

 

[Moonunit 451]

Except - Did the dealer troubleshoot or did they just do what you told them to?

Bingo, there are lots of repair shops out there who love nothing more than customers who perform their own diagnosis, and beter still bring their own parts. They simply folow instructions, and wait for the high numbers of people who misdiagnose to come back and complian the problem wasn't fixed.

They then make additional money to find and fix the problem and head to the bank, having a little snicker at your expense. It's kinda easy for us backyard mechanics to get tunnel vision and mis the problem entirely.