I flew to L.A. on Friday to pick up a 1997 Red Vette from one of my best friends. He got an '05 at a great price so he sold me his for the same (very low) price the dealer offered him.

I drove from L.A. to Albuquerque on Saturday and Albuquerque to K.C. on Sunday. This morning, I drove up to Omaha.

My buddy advised me to start the car without my foot on the gas pedal or it would screw up the injectors. I turn the key part of the way and then watch the "Corvette by Chevrolet" scroll by the OSD. All of the gauges swing to the right and then back to the left. I turn the key all the way to the right and I hear the engine start but then it immediately dies. The tach needle doesn't move AT ALL when I start it.

After once or twice of this I start it like I do with my other vehicles with my foot slightly on the gas. It starts up just fine.

What am I doing wrong? Was he right about starting it up without my foot on the gas?

Also, I hear a little humming behind my left shoulder. He said that was normal and it is the fuel pump. Is it normal to hear it?

Do I have to turn on the electricity to get the electric fuel pump sending fuel to the engine and then start it? Is my problem that I have not been waiting long enough?

As you can tell by the ton of questions, I don't want to screw up the car by doing something stupid. Thanks for your responses!

 

start it with your foot off the gas.you could have a dirty throttle housing causing your problem.if it starts fine with the throttle "just" cracked open,more than likely you have a dirty blade/housing.

 

I think in any fuel injected car if you put your foot to the floor it shuts off the fuel injectors momentarily. I have to do this with my mustang because it has 42lb injectors and hot starts are an issue. Too much gas to start the car. May be a similar issue. Good luck.

 

Putting your foot on the gas only works with accelerator pumps found in carburetors. The car is 9 years old. It may need a tune up, a fuel filter, it could be many things. How many Miles? Has this car been serviced? I dont mean an oil change... plugs, air cleaner? Is it stock?
How did it run when it started? Are you home with the car? Did you enjoy the ride? how many times has this starting thing happen? does it happen every time? See we have lots a questions too. Welcome to the forum. Oh BTW there are many people that know very little about this car but claim too... there is no direct connection between the gas pedal and the throttle body. The throttle is opened through a linear transducer that sends a signal to the PCM. In other words it is like a fly by wire system.

 

The car had 54,400 miles when I left L.A. and about 2,000 more now. It started fine with his prescribed method when I left L.A. but about 1/2 way through the road trip I started having problems. The OSD says the oil is at 49% of its life but I intend to change it as soon as I get home this next weekend. The car had about 2,000 miles on it since the last oil change before I embarked on the journey. My buddy suggested I check the air cleaner but I haven't done that yet. I'll check his receipts tonight to see what he has had done recently.

He has RELIGIOUSLY maintained it at the dealer. This guy is a lawyer and he doesn't think twice about handing the keys to the dealer and saying, "do whatever it needs and just charge my credit card." Having said that, he does have the fuel gauge problem which I think is caused by low octane gas (thanks to this great forum). I was forced to use 91 and 90 octane gas on the drive. I will deal with the fuel gauge problem in due time (I have access to 93 octane when I get her to St. Louis on Friday and I am hoping that devotion to 93 octane will help the problem. Maybe that is naive.)

When it happened during the ride I assumed it was because the car was warm. BUT, it happened again this morning after the car had rested for 8 hours.

As for the ride, it was sublime!!! Occasionally would do 100 and once hit 120 and the ONLY way I knew I was going 120 was because of the speedometer. 2,000 miles and didn't get pulled over once!

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Most of us here on the forum are not too excited about anyone doing 120 on a public highway, in fact it is frowned upon officially here. That is just a heads up.
The fuel gage is a well documented problem. Low octane can be a problem... I do not think you have any major issues. The car just may need some better quality food. You could have dirty injectors, or a bad pump. A can of Techron fuel additive would not hurt. The fuel tank delivery system is different on your car than on newer models. The mileage on your car may not be significant but at 9 years of age, some things should be changed, that normally would not at 54,000 miles. Eg. plug wires and plugs. Again I think some fine tuning and TLC will give you a very pleasurable ride. Don't forget the Techron.

 

Welcome to the Forum and congragulations on your new ride! The very first thing that you should do is check your DIC for DTC trouble codes. It's easy to do and will allow us to point you in the right direction. The next thing that you should do is get some quality fuel injector cleaner and add it to a few tank fulls of fuel. I use Chevron Techron in the 16 oz bottle and it works very well. That in it self may take care of the problem. As for the sound that you hear; it is completly normal. It is the fuel pump in the drivers side tank. It will run for a few seconds and charge up the fuel system. There is a possibility that you could have a bad fuel check valve in the fuel tank, a leakey injector or a bad pump. If the fuel cleaner doesnt fix it, have your fuel system checked out and see if it maintains the prescribed fuel pressure for the correct time. There could be other possibilities but will wait until you post the codes. If it leaks down too quickly, it can cause hard starts.

As for the foot on the accelator to start; most all fuel injected cars dont need any throttle to start and run. If for some reason that the engine was flooded, depressing the accelerator to the floor while cranking, puts the car into "FLOOD MODE" and cuts off all the fuel to the injectors. It a very handy way to fool people: Im sorry officer, Im having trouble with my car and now it wont even start!

Air filters! If you need an air filter, it might be a good time to up-grade to an aftermarket filter. BLACKWING seems to be a good and popular choice.

As for oil change frequency, the OIL LIFE MONITOR is very accurate and a good representation of real oil life. Many Forum members have found that changing the oil before it needs to be changed is just a waste of money.

Here is a very good web site that will explain fow to read the DTC Codes and what they mean.

This is the absolute best C5 Code web site!!!

http://www.corvettedoctor.com/index.html

http://www.corvettedoctor.com/index-1.html

http://www.corvettedoctor.com/Code_Main.html

The sound effects are cool too!!

Please post your codes and let us know what you find. If they have not been read and cleared for a while, there may be quite a few. After you write them down and post them, clear the codes!

Bill Curlee

 

I realized that the car has never been out of Southern California and during my drive I took it up to about 8,000 feet elevation and into relatively cool temps that the car has probably never experienced before. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

Ironically, it started perfectly both before and after my lunch. Only difference is that once I turned the key to the right I waited 3 or 4 seconds to complete the process instead of immediately after the needles returned to rest.

I had planned on using some Techron to address the low octane issue that is probably the culprit of the fuel gauge problem. Once I get back to St. Louis I am going with Mobil 93 octane exclusively.

We started getting snow flurries while I was at lunch. I may have to park it in a buddy's garage and use a rental car for the rest of my week in Omaha. Not happy about that!

 

Your car was designed to run in all weather conditions form Death Valley to Nome Alaska! The weather, weather conditions or altitude should have nothing to the way that it runs under normal conditions. The engine uses sensors to compenstae for all that stuff. The MAF and the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP ) sensor takes care of those altitude variations.

Before you give up and mess up your vacation, read the codes and lets see what the magic computer is telling us! Hopefully we can resolve the issue.

dpd had a good idea. The throttle blades get real dirty!! If the throttle blade has a lot of crap on it, the small opening that it uses to maintain minimun Idle will be messed up. Just loosten up the hose clamp on the accrrdian tube, disconnect the connectors for the Intake air sensor, MAF remove the sense line for the fuel pressure regulator and the rubber hose on the air filter housing that suplies fresh air to the A.I.R punp. The entire filter housing with the air bridge will simply lift out. The very front of the housing snaps on to two small metal studs that that are screwed into the front cross frame. There are two rubber gromets in the filter housing. Use some WD-40 and spray the gromets. This will help you when you have to pop the housing off the gromets.

Once the filter housing is remove, service the filter if necessary and clean the TB. You can push the blade open with your finger (ignition switch OFF!). Spray some carb cleaner into the TB and on to the blade. Use a snall piece of cloth and wipe out the area where the blade rest on the inside of the TB and wipe off the front and BACK of the blade. You will be amazed at how dirty it will be. When your done release the TB blade and it will rotate back to its at rest position. It will not go fully shut. When you turn on the key, it will go shut.

See if that helps.

I will be monitoring this post and if you need help, all you need to do is ask! I will PM you my Cell#

Bill C

 

Uh, are sure you're talking about THIS forum? Heck we regularly hit triple digits during our mountain runs; why would frown on anyone else doing it?

This foum DOES have some very knowledgable people lurking around so stay tuned and get ready to troubleshoot with the best!

 

bc