I've been having some weird idling/starting issues. It started yesterday when I went to a see Cal State Northridge play Cal Poly and I need to start my car to move it from where I initially parked it. It wouldn't start on the first three turns, and then it choked horribly on the fourth and finally started...

(Fast Forward to later that day) So I was driving home last night night from a party, and I got maybe 100 feet away from the house when the car started idling oddly and then just flat out died. I flipped it into neutral and coasted down a hill enough to pull to the side of the road. I opened the hood, checked the MAF to see if it was unplugged or fouled, and checked for other sorts of leaks. I found nothing. So I go to start it up, takes about 15 tries before it starts and then my gauges don't work (all set at 0).....just f&*kin' great. I let it warm up to see if the gauges would then work but they did not. I just drove the car home with no gauges, it was getting late and I was in a bad neighborhood, so I just said fvck it and drove the POS home (thank God I got home).

This morning, I went out to check up on the car...I looked under the hood and found nothing out of place. I checked for exhaust leaks.....nothing. Everything looked a-ok after a thorough 30 minute teardown of the car. I reset my tune to stock ad checked for any codes in HPT.....I found nothing. So I go to start it again...and it takes three tries this time....and it chokes to life once again (it sounded horrible). I've also never felt the car shake this bad when it starts....it feels like someone !LS4 and put a 572 BBC in there or something.

Anyone else have problems like this? I'm really getting fed up with this car, it has 4207 miles and its been in for service more than 10 times. What gives? This is the biggest POS I've ever owned....thinkin' about ditching now before more **** fails. Sorry for the long post.

 

I've felt the hard-starting condition when I don't hold the key long enough for it to catch the first time around....never took more than two additional tries after missing the first time or two...but like you said, it just coughs then spits it all out when it starts.

 

I ususally let the fuel pump engage then I start it. It usually takes one try. How much voltage does it read? Do you have a big sound system in the car? Maybe a battery or alt.?... Just guessing.

-Mike

 

When starting it hold the key never let off you cannot over-start these cars you can hold it all day long without hurting the starter.

 

I made sure each time to hold the key down all the way but nothing would jive, just no dice until it would cough to life.

I know what you mean about the fuel pump, mine is getting quite loud, and I always listen for it when I start the car. I do have two 10" subs running on a 300w amp right now (my 1000w alpine is in for a service update), and I have had these for a long time without a problem. I am on an ACDelco battery (the updated from the TSB 720 IIRC?), and the subs have never given me trouble. Can't read the voltage right now, just dropped the car off for service at the stealership 30 minutes ago.

Same thing as I said above, I always make sure to hold the key down the full amount of time, it would be quite n00bish not to when I am having a repeated problem like this.

 

That wasn't really meant for you it was meant for buffalo who said he didn't hold the key down long enough

 

Oh alright then, my bad.....I am kinda frustrated right now because my dealer doesn't give loaners and I have to find a ride to school, cuz I have 8AM class.....great.

 

I know at my dealership if i didn't get a rental there courtesy service would take me places if it was a emergency and pick me up might want to ask if its not to far of a drive.

 

When I first got the car it wouldn't start a few times, but eventually it always started. Hasn't given me that problem for at least a year though **knocks on wood** but I think it was battery related. Sorry to hear that man. Don't know what to tell ya except I hope you get it worked out. I can feel your frustration, my car has been in for service at least 10 times as well but has been fine for the last year so hopefully that means everything is good now.

 

Well....I got in touch with the dealership today, and they claim they have searched high and low and even contacted GM headquarters to try and diagnose this problem (don't know if thats bs or not). I got the same old message: "Dealer cannot replicate the problem."

I also brought to their attention the brake shudder that they *supposedly* fixed about 200 miles ago. They want to have the car another day to try and reproduce the starting conditions of a cold start...(but I told them the car wasn't cold when this occurred) as well as take care of the brakes that should be fixed by now.

This honestly sucks, I am not impressed with the quality of this car nor the utility of my service department. Every time I take the car in, it seems like they put a 200 mile "glue-stick" fix on the part that's acting up and then it comes back later mysteriously. This is the fifth time the car has been in for service for a non-expected failure, and the last time I was in was 200 miles ago.....I really want to get to the bottom of this and get a car back.

 

I feel your pain

 

Thanks man.... with this car.

 

Who says that they don't give loaners? Was it your originating dealer? That is complete BS. If they have your car for more than 24hrs, and you bought it from them, they should be giving you a loaner...that's all there is to it. Pretty sure that's somewhere in the warranty binder/agreement.

I can understand it if you're going elsewhere for service, but even then, GM is GM and should do right by their customers. None of this "loyalty to your selling dealer" bullshit. Be loyal to me and fix my ***king car or I'll never buy a GM again...how bout that?

 

Nacho - when I read your post I remembered having that same problem in the past, IIRC it was bad gasoline (water in the gas). We have that problem in the winter up north here. I'm thinking a code should have been thrown for something, but maybe not? Especially since it can't be duplicated. Do you use a good name brand fuel from a "newer" gas station?

I had to purge the system, maybe needed a bottle of that water eater. That was in the late 90's ... don't know if it's still sold or if it's good for sensors. Think I got it at AutoZone. Thinking changing the fuel filter for added insurance.

Edit - also, my old Regal GS mysteriously died one day because the front impact sensor got wet and shorted out, causing the fuel pump to be shut off. The fix from GM was a new sensor w/ a longer pig to get it up on the nice warm and dry firewall. But that was a '98, so I'd assume that was already in the design of these cars, but maybe not!

 

Yeah, you can still get dry gas or whatever it's called at AZ.

 

isnt the fuel filter non-serviceable?

also, sorry about all that bs that your going through nacho.

 

I thought I saw my filter under the rear passenger foot well, along the frame where they always were.

... but the MCSS undercarriage looks like it stayed the same from the K-member back.

 

i thought it was in the fuel tank or something weird like that......

 

..I dont know what to say about the dealer..with mine its a game you have to play in order to get things done. Finally my Onstar works, they replaced the VCIM or whatever. Also my headliner was comming down and they re glued the velco patches up but I had to redo one of them because it was half way sticking out of the headliner....Plus my negative battery cable was all loosey goosey and I couldnt tighten it, the collar that the stud goes through is cracked..So I had them deal with it and they cracked the piece even further but its all tight. I'll wait till I see these cars in the yarde and i'll pluck that collar, because that cable runs into the car harness and you dont see it agian. I dont need them tearing aprt the harness for that... I hate taking my car to the dealer as it sits for almost a good week before I get it back. moreoeften than not my problems are not fixed... that stering rack situation was good but everything else sucked... I think they did someitn to my exhasut, its sitting a bit odd..

 

Well my dealer runs a "courtesy shuttle" thing, but it starts @ 9am and I have had 8am class the past two days that I had the car missing, so that was a pain in the *** to get a ride. I bought the car at the dealership I am speaking of, so there should be no issues there. Don't know about any contract of a loaner.....

I only use gas from a 76 station, 93 octane (have to ask for it at a 76 station in cali), so I trust it is good quality gas...but I won't rule everything out. The water eater sounds like a good idea, but the funny thing is, the car didn't throw any codes when on my HPT tune or when I reverted to the stock tune when I started having problems.

So to finish this saga, I got the car back today....and their service sheet lays out the **** they had to check out. Basically, they could not replicate the knocking noise from the RR of the car, could not replicate the whole entire problem that is the reason for starting this thread, could not replicate the looseness in my steering (how can you not replicate that???). What they did to fix the brake shudder *that was fixed ~200 miles ago* was to put air in my front tires....29psi to 32psi. I just about laughed out loud in the service writer's face when he told me this. Then they wanted $91.00 in labor and overnight charges...lucky I still am under warranty.

that was fun..........not....