Make yourself comfortable. It's a long story.

Over a year ago I was driving my 93 vette and it died, turned over fine but couldn't start.

I didn't know the electronics of the car so I had it towed to the dealer for diagnosis. They told me it needed an opti at a cost of something like $800. I had it towed home and tore it down.

I replaced the opti and it still didn't start. I replace the ignition module, no start. I finally allowed myself to believe it could be the coil, replaced it and it started right up. If it had been properly diagnosed in the first place I would have saved.....oh forget it. It ran and I got over it.

I haven't been driving it much over the past year but one day I was on a nice clear straight away and I had some wise guy trying to match his BMW or some such thing to my vette so I punched it at around 45 to give him a nice view of my double tail lights and it died.

It started right up so I figured it was just some water in the gas or something.

Another day I drove it about 40 miles, let it sit for a couple hours, started it up and got on the freeway about 5 minutes from where I'd been and it died. This time it wouldn't start again. I had it flatbedded home for $300 and it started right after I pushed it up the hill into my garage.

It seemed heat related so I tried to remember if I'd gone cheap on the ignition module, gotten an aftermarket that might have gone bad after a couple hundred miles. Maybe it didn't hold up. I checked the forum and found out the electrostolic greese was the wrong thing. I thought maybe that's what I used so I went to Radio Shack and got the other stuff. I got another AC Delco module which I probably didn't need.

The other day I drove literally 5 minutes from cold, was in the place for 30 minutes, came out and it wouldn't start. After sitting there for another half hour, it started right up and i got home no problem. It wasn't heat because the ignition module and coil were both easy to touch.

At this point I'd bring it to a vette shop and pay whatever it took to get it fixed but I can't recreate the problem. Sometimes it runs for a couple hours, no problem. Other times after 5 minutes, it either dies or won't start.

Most recently it either dies when it's just rolling along or it doesn't start after sitting for awhile. Oh yeah, I just remembered, I replaced the fuel filter too.

Anyone got any advice? I enjoy looking at the car in my garage but driving it is really the goal here.

 

Could be the Vehicle Anti Theft system malfunctioning.

Do a search on VATS.

Also, did you check for any error codes?

 

The VATS sounds promising. I'll look at it. Checking error codes sounds like it will require an expensive piece of diagnostic equipment I'll only use once. is that the case?

 

Checking codes is simple and all it takes is a paper clip to jump two pins together on the diagnostic port under the driver side dash.

The Service Engine Soon light will blink revealing the codes which you can determine by looking up the codes. Here is a good link http://www.troublecodes.net/GM/

The 8th digit in the VIN tag is the engine type. Your 93 should be VIN P.

 

Sounds like fuel pump to me. get a pressure gauge next time it dies and see what you pressure is.

 

I've had fuel pumps die in other vehicles and if you turned the key on and off a few times it seemed to loosen the pump up enough to let the car run a little while before locking up again... Of course this doesn't always happens. Generally the pumps just die and lock up...

 

I've repleced everything spark related at least once. It could be the fuel pump of course, in fact that's the only major component of the spark and fuel systems that's left to replace. If it would die in my garage I'd slap the fuel pressure guage on it in a heartbeat but I guess I've got to start bringing it with me.

 

Under the right side dash panel there is a relay panel. All the relays are the same. I found some corrosion had built up in the sockets, I cleaned the relay box with electrical contact cleaner and replaced all the relays about $7 each from NAPA or CQ. and that was the fix for me. Maybe you have the same problem. Good luck

 

Did you ever figure out what caused the intermittent stalling? Mine has done this a couple of times. I think its water in the fuel tank, but cannot verify this. I just put some "Iso Heet" in the tank and I hope this fixes it.

Does anybody else know the fix for this intermittent stalling. If so, chime in please. Thanks

 

Yup, I found the solution. It was the one I didn't want to admit it could be, the optispark.

I had replaced the opti probably 1000 miles before the problem started. I bought the cheapest, aftermarket part I could find. It's a pain of a job and I didn't want to think about doing it again so soon, so I looked everywhere else for the problem.

I finally got it to malfunction at a garage that works on older, classic cars as well as new ones. They got meters and gauges on it and it was the opti. This time I let them replace it with a name brand part. $750 later it's running like a top.

Moral of the story, I wouldn't say all aftermarket parts are junk but if you're replacing something sophisticated (and hard to get to) like the optispark, it's probably worth it to go with a name brand.

 

I fought this for almost a year. At first it was throwing a code that indicated the Opti so I replaced that with a delco unit. That worked for a few months then the problem returned. Went to a friend thats a mechanic and he pulled the same code and replaced the Opti again and checked over wires and grounds. We found some bad grounds and fuses that had corrosion which were part of the problem or would be in the future. The problem continued and sometimes with no codes and sometimes with a MAP sensor code. We thought the ECM should be checked so that was taken out and sent in for testing and repair. There was a problem with the ECM so it was fixed and reinstalled but stalled again. This time the MAP code showed up again so I replaced that and it has been running good ever sense.
My car had several problems and thats not always the case. The first thing you need to do is pull the codes and start from there. Without the codes your just flying blind and throwing parts at it. Pull the codes and start a new thread with that info and the guys will help from there.